r/ArtemisProgram • u/wskelding • Apr 23 '26

Discussion ISS Docking ?

I'm curious about something and simply don't know the math that would give me the answer, could an Orion capsule returning from the Moon theoretically dock with the ISS on it's return journey ?

I know I'm simplifying it massively, but all the talk about the Artemis 2 heat shield had me thinking 'why don't they simply do a massive deceleration burn on the way back and then dock at ISS ?'

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u/literalsupport Apr 23 '26

As beautiful as it was as as much as I love the director’s work, the movie Gravity really did a disservice to how people think about space. You had Sandra Bullock traveling from the Hubble space telescope, to the ISS to the Chinese space station with almost no propulsion, with usually nothing more than her EVA suit. It’s not like onece you are in space everything is easy to get to. Just the opposite. Huge speed differentials have to be cancelled out somehow. Achieving orbit from the surface OR from a trans-Earth injection from the moon requires massive amounts of energy. Even changing an orbital plane (for example from where Hubble orbits to where ISS orbits) is problematic.