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> only three things have been assembled from multiple launches like you are proposing: Mir, ISS, and Tiangong I would also count the Apollo missions. They laun
by Asraelite 2y ago
> only three things have been assembled from multiple launches like you are proposing: Mir, ISS, and Tiangong
I would also count the Apollo missions. They launched on a single rocket, but the docking between the CSM and Lunar Module was for all intents and purposes equally difficult to assembly on orbit.
There are multiple commercial companies planning to assemble stations over the next few years. This in addition to the on-orbit refueling that SpaceX will be doing should hopefully enable a new generation of larger, assembled interplanetary probes.
- mandevil 2y agoI was using multiple here to mean 3 or more launches, because otherwise the Gemini missions that docked to a separately launched Agena-D booster (G8, G10, G11, G12) would all qualify: GX and GXI even restarted the ATV's engine to set new altitude records (which I think still holds today- if you ignore the 21 men who went to the moon on a Apollo capsule from 1968-1972). But that is closer to what I meant, because they had to worry about separate launches that might fail (GVI, GIX) and find and dock with something you need to use orbital mechanics to approach (basically anything under 30m distance you can just eyeball and fly, but anything over that distance requires the full set of orbital calculations).