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Cosmonauts Tikhonov and Babkin passed manual docking test

On February 13, 2020, Soyuz MS-16 crewed spacecraft commander Nikolay Tikhonov and flight engineer Andrey Babkin took the test on manual berthing and redocking.

The crew performed redocking on the Don-Soyuz simulator, which is the only normal manual control mode. Other cases included non-nominal situations requiring the crew change over from automatic to manual mode. Those non-nominal situations included malfunction of the onboard computer making the crew change over to manual orientation via analog circuit – the station itself is transferred from orbital coordinate system to the current location. The situation is worsened by the darkness.

The third case includes approach failure with manual orientation performed through discrete circuit; the fourth one is based on onboard computer malfunction at an increased approach speed (safety mode). During this training commander and flight engineer are working together in the descent module. The ship is controlled by commander, while flight engineer controls his actions and the functioning of the onboard systems.

ISS-63 Russian prime crew members Nikolay Tikhonov and Andrey Babkin showed stable skills of Soyuz MS spacecraft manual berthing and redocking necessary in case of automatics failure during the berthing process, as well as ability to redock. The cosmonauts passed the test, the next one on manual approach is scheduled for the next week.