That's basically the history of the APAS docking system [1], which was co-developed by American and Soviet engineers. So why isn't it universal? As usual, XKCD

That's basically the history of the APAS docking system [1], which was co-developed by American and Soviet engineers. So why isn't it universal? As usual, XKCD has a compelling explanation: https://xkcd.com/927/ https://xkcd.com/927/ [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Androgynous_Peripheral_Attach_System https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Androgynous_Peripheral_Attach_...