I was getting all excited to share a cool new NASA game with everyone, then I played it. It might be fun for a little while, and might seem cool, but it is not very accurate, and NASA’s job is to educate the public.
After installing the Unity plugin needed for the game to work via a web browser, a title screen comes up and while various space-to-ground loop calls play, there is an animation of the Shuttle docking with the ISS. The animation shows the Shuttle fly under the station and then the shuttle pitches up 90 degrees and while a call announces that the Shuttle is go to proceed within 30 feet and initiate final approach, the Shuttle maneuvers straight up, parallel to the r-bar vector to a position a few feet in front of the PMA (Pressurized Mating Adapter) on the ISS. This is a maneuver that never happened and never would. In reality, the Shuttle flew about 600 ft below the Station and up to the v-bar 600 ft in front of the Space Station, and then very slowly reduced relative velocity to decrease the distance between the two vehicles.
Oh well. If you want to play a little game where you can pretend to be on an EVA and maneuver around the ISS using your keyboard, give it a try. Here’s a trivia question for everyone. What are the four dark great circular objects attached to the white surface in the image on the left?
