Final Proximity Space Systems

Let’s Talk Space

Fifteen things worth
knowing about Spaceflight.

The history, the engineering, and the failures that taught the most. Written for people who want the detail rather than the summary.

All fifteen topics

01

Historical overview of space flight

Humanity’s progression from the earliest rockets to present-day spacecraft: the pivotal moments, the missions that mattered, and what each one actually proved.

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02

Chronology of rendezvous and docking

Sixty years of rendezvous and docking, Gemini to MEV-1 and the servicing, refuelling and debris removal missions announced next. Thirty-seven operations, each with its outcome.

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03

Evolution of interplanetary missions

The development of missions to distant planets and small bodies, from flybys of our neighbours to landings and sample return.

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04

Embedded optimisation for space systems

How optimisation algorithms let spacecraft make complex decisions on their own, and what has to be proven before one is allowed to fly.

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05

Analysing failures in rendezvous and docking

A candid look at rendezvous and docking failures, and the lessons that steered everything that came after them.

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06

ECSS and NASA guidelines for space software

The standards ESA and NASA set for flight software: the principles, the practices, and the evidence they demand.

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07

Verification and validation in space systems

Verification and validation: the steps, methods and testing that establish a space system does what it was built to do.

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08

Ground tests for proximity operations

Ground testing is the bedrock of mission preparation. The facilities, the simulations, and what each one can and cannot prove.

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09

In-orbit rendezvous and docking: the Gemini missions

The Gemini programme turned rendezvous and docking from theory into something people had done. Twelve missions, and twenty-seven minutes that nearly ended one of them.

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10

Chronology of flyby missions

Most of what we know about the outer solar system came from spacecraft that could not stop. Mariner to Voyager to New Horizons: one pass, a few hours of science, and no second attempt.

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11

Lunar missions, 1959 to 2000

Reaching the Moon, landing on it, walking on it, and then not going back for fourteen years. What the first era settled, and what it left open.

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12

Lunar missions, 2000 to today

Fifteen soft landing attempts since 2000, and slightly under half succeeded. The full list with the outcome of each, and what the failures have in common.

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13

Kinematic test benches

EPOS, both TRONs, GRALS, ROBY and the Goddard capture range: robot arms replaying orbital motion for real sensors, and the line where computed dynamics stop being enough.

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14

Dynamic test benches

Air-bearing floors from Marshall to Bremen, three to six degrees of freedom, and the one honest 6-DoF laboratory, which is in orbit.

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15

Lander test benches

The Langley gantry, the flying bedstead, Morpheus, the rocket you could rent, and TURKUZAYSAN’s BUG lander: how landing guidance meets hardware before it meets the Moon.

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If one of these is close to something you are working on, we would rather talk than write. Reach out to us.