XR Flight Operations Manual Version 3.0
Copyright 2006-2018 Douglas Beachy. All Rights Reserved.
53
Docking Camera View of Final Approach to the ISS
You can access the docking panel by pressing CTRL-UP from the upper panel view
(i.e., press CTRL-UP
twice
from the main panel), or you can use the
Switch to
Docking Camera View
button on the upper panel. The docking camera is mounted
directly along the centerline of the Vanguard’s docking port.
In addition to the docking camera, the Vanguard can switch the RCS jets into
docking configuration
. This is controlled via the
RCS Docking Config
button/light on
the main panel and the docking camera panel, or you can use the ALT-J hotkey.
Clicking the button toggles the RCS configuration between
Normal
and
Docking
modes: in normal mode the RCS jets operate normally. In
docking
mode, however,
two changes occur: 1) power to the RCS jets is reduced to 40% of normal to allow
for precise control of the ship while docking, and 2) the control axes for the RCS jets
are switched so that when you are looking along the docking port centerline camera
you can use the RCS Rotation and Translation keys just as though you were looking
along the
nosecone
with a
nosecone
docking port; i.e., it will feel "normal." For
example, pressing NUMPAD6 in translation mode will move the ship forward along
the Z axis in
normal
RCS mode, but it will move the ship up along the Y axis in
docking
RCS mode.
