AAS 96-131

SHUTTLE STABILITY AND CONTROL OF THE STS-71 SHUTTLE/MIR MATED CONFIGURATION

D. Zimpfer, K. Kirchwey, D. Hanson, and M. Jackson, Charles Stark Draper Laboratory; N. Smith, NASA Johnson Space Center

Abstract

In June 1995 the American Space Shuttle Atlantis docked with the Russian Mir Space Station for five days of mated joint operations. A key element in the successful completion of the joint flight phase was the capability of the Shuttle to control and stabilize the large flexible mated Shuttle / Mir stack. This was done to within tight loading constraints and moderate pointing requirements. This paper provides an overview of the Shuttle control system, summarizes the pre-flight frequency domain design and time domain analysis process and presents the flight results from the STS-71 Shuttle / Mir mission.