What's the ISS docking procedure?

The international space station or ISS has been up in Space for more than a decade and it has seen many people aboard it. Astronauts mostly go up there in shifts of 6 months but there is a lot of procedures and physics involved in the transportation of these astronauts.

Astronauts first board a Soyus rocket in Russia that takes them up into space. Since the ISS is moving around the Earth at 17,000 Km/hr its impossible for the launched soyuz module to straight away reach the ISS and dock. There are several burns that astronauts have to perform during the procedure.

The first step is to get the soyuz module to start orbitting the Earth. For orbitting the Earth the astronauts use up one of their several burns. The next step is to move towards the ISS. Now the astronauts have to perform burns at each half orbit points. So a burn at 180 degrees of the orbit and another burn at 360 degrees. This will allow the circumfrance of the Soyuz's orbit to increases allowing it to get closer to the ISS. 

Finally when the Soyuz rocket is inline with the ISS the astronauts apply another burn that allows the Soyuz rocket to get ahead of the ISS. Now the soyuz rocket is supposed to rotate so that the hatch faces the dock of the ISS. A final burn procedure is performed to get the Soyuz closer to the ISS and ultimately the module is docked.

It typically takes around 30-35 minutes for the entire docking procedure and the soyuz is continuously monitored from the ground to ensure that the angles are correct. A slight micalculation can be disastrous.          

Later this month Scott Kelly and two other astronauts will be travelling to the Space station which is what made me write this post cause surely people might want to know whats happening through the journey from Earth to ISS.

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Did we actually go to the moon?

Conspiracy theories about the 1969 Lunar mission carrying Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to the moon are still strong. According to recent data, 20% Americans like to believe that the above mission was just a photo studio. I like to be on the 80% side that says that we did in fact go to the moon in 1969.

The photograph at the start of this article has raised many questions about the credibility of the 1969 mission. The following are the questions raised looking at the above image that even come to my mind:

1) Where are the stars in the background?

Now This question is by far the fuel behind the conspiracy of the moon landing. There have to be stars in Space right. So how is it not visible? NASA scientists say that the Sunlight hitting the moon surface was so bright that it washed out the light from the stars causing it to not show up in photographs. Obviously people will look at this photograph and feel that this could be a set because of the missing stars making the background look like a black backdrop.

2) In the video footage the flag seemed to be moving and stay upright. How would it be possible for the flag to stay upright and move if there were no air on the moon?

The flag has a pole on the top end across the length of the flag. That pole is what is keeping the flag upright. As for the movement, when the astronauts placed the flag in the lunar surface they forced it into the lunar surface with a forward and backward motion. This caused the flag to move and keep moving for some time even after the astronauts left the flags. 

My opinion is that 1969 was the year when NASA put 2 men on the lunar surface and it truly was "One giant leap for mankind",

The question came to my mind while looking for a documentary of the 1969 moon mission. When you google search the mission the conspiracies also show up. The comments section is open for your opinions. And as always........

Thanks for reading!