Review of Mishaps in Rendezvous and Proximity Operations

The need for and complexity of rendezvous and proximity operations (RPO) is growing due to the increase of in-space servicing, manufacturing, and assembly missions. Past RPO missions have had historic mishaps, and while more recent RPO missions have been less catastrophic, mishaps are still present. This paper reviews past historic RPO missions with mishaps and the causes behind them, and summarizes lessons learned. A review of more recent but less catastrophic RPO missions with mishaps is also presented. An overview of missions include the 1984 STS-41B, 1990 STS-32, 1992 STS-49, 1997 Progress-Mir, 2005 NASA DART, 2007 DARPA Orbital Express, 2015 Russian Kurs, and 2017 SpaceX Dragon. Finally, the paper summarizes the most prominent lessons learned from RPO missions with mishaps. This paper is intended to be used so that future RPO missions can avoid costly mishaps by addressing lessons learned from past operations.