Unusually high motion during docking?

Unusually high motion during docking?


I'm reposting this from www.habitablezone.com's space board
(I missed seeing the docking myself, family duties):



Posted by
Doug Ellison
on
3/31/2006 10:31:38 PM




Have any of you seen the video from the recent Soyuz docking with the ISS.

Two things caught me by suprise.



1) The US solar arrays looked like it was flapping about like crazy - I
thought

they turned the arrays edge-on to the approaching craft to limit rcs-array
forces -

this thing was flapping around like a sail in a strong wind.



2) The actual docking was spot on in terms of targetting (one of the
smallest

post-contact nudges to one side I've seen) - but in terms of rotation,

after initial capture, the spacecraft rotated about 15 - 20 degrees about

what I guess would be called its Z axis? (the axis of the docking probe)



Everything has gone fine - but both of those things really caught my eye

and seemed unusual compared to previous Soyuz and/or Progress dockings.


.