Designing and Validating Proximity Operations Rendezvous and Approach Trajectories for the Cygnus Mission

In 2011, the Orbital Sciences Corporation Cygnus vehicle, developed to provide cargo services to the International Space Station (ISS), will conduct its first autonomous rendezvous with the ISS. The Cygnus vehicle is developed by Orbital Sciences Corporation with subcontracted support for key elements from Draper Laboratory, and Odyssey Space Research. Safety has been an integral part of the design of trajectories, sensors, reaction control system, and GN&C algorithms. This paper describes the approach used to design and validate safe trajectories for the Cygnus vehicle.