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Docking

The act of physically joining two spacecraft, usually through a standardised mechanism that also creates a sealed passage between them.

Why it matters

Docking is what turns separate vehicles into a single structure, and the standard matters more than the manoeuvre: a common docking interface is why spacecraft from different countries and companies can visit the same station. Once joined, the two vehicles must behave as one for guidance and control, which is why the last few metres are the most tightly automated part of most missions.

In our data

The missions in our tracker that end in a docking are the crew and cargo flights to orbital stations - the ones our data labels as crewed and cargo spacecraft rather than by destination orbit, because for those missions the destination is another vehicle, not a place.

Missions we track

2026-09-30 Falcon 9 Block 5 | Crew-13 To Be Determined
2026-10-31 Falcon 9 Block 5 | Dragon CRS-2 SpX-35 To Be Determined
2026-12-31 Long March 2F/G | Shenzhou 24 To Be Determined

Where we use it

Not to be confused with

Berthing, where a robotic arm grapples the arriving vehicle and places it onto a port, rather than the vehicle flying itself in. Docking is active; berthing is being parked by someone else.