John Doe wrote in
:

André wrote:
Because the shuttle is moving slightly (rocking back-and-forth, after
docking) opposed to the ISS.
This can cause the seal to leak, so the crew must be very sure the
seal

is good, and the orbiter does not move any more.


Lets say this were an emergency of biblical proportions. What would
happen if they were to complete the docking before all motion has been
dampened ?

You mean, "if they were to try to complete the docking..."

The answer is that the docking mechanism would jam and they would not
successfully complete it.

And once the hard dock is complete, can there still be any residual
movement ? Once docked, doesn't the shuttle form a single unit with
the station with relative motion between the two basically 0 ?

Yes. But they still need to perform leak checks.

Does NASA have "emergency docking" procedures where wait times are
dramatically reduced to a bare minimum ?

No. If they got into that situation, they'd have to wing it.

--
JRF

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