SpaceX Made An ISS Docking Simulator And It's Seriously Fun (And Difficult)
SpaceX's Crew Dragon is set to launch on its first crewed mission to the International Space Station on May 27th. While the craft is designed to handle docking with the ISS on its own, it can turn over manual control to astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley if need be.
And now you — from the comfort of your couch — can try out the docking simulator Behnken and Hurley have been using to prepare. SpaceX released the simulator online on Tuesday, and it's a very good way to take a break for… well, for however long it takes you to get things right.
You're put in control of a bunch of different controls (we highly recommend reading through the tutorial first) and have to finely tune each element while slowly moving towards the Space station:
There's something quite meditative about the whole process — perfect for a work from home afternoon.