Rendezvous

The manoeuvring by which one spacecraft matches the orbit of another closely enough to operate alongside it.

Why it matters

Rendezvous is counter-intuitive in a way that matters operationally: to catch up with a target ahead of you, you slow down and drop to a lower, faster orbit, then rise to meet it. Every crewed station flight, every cargo delivery, every satellite-servicing and debris-removal mission depends on getting this right, and the approach is measured in hours of careful phasing rather than a straight-line chase.

In our data

Rendezvous is what makes several distinct mission types in our tracker possible at all - crew rotations, cargo resupply, and the servicing and debris-removal flights we follow. The crewed and cargo categories alone appear as separate mission classes in our launch data, distinct from ordinary satellite deployment.

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

Where we use it

Not to be confused with

Docking, which is the physical connection that may follow. A spacecraft can rendezvous and then hold station without ever touching its target - which is exactly what an inspection or debris-capture mission does first.