How To Dock With ISS in SpaceX's Free Dragon Docking Simulator

In advance of the DM-2 Flight carrying crew to the ISS using the first privately designed and built spacecraft SpaceX have released a cut down version of the Dragon simulator which allows you to fly the docking sequence with the ISS. While this is only a cut down version of a full Dragon 2 simulation, it does give you a chance to see how the user interface design is radically different from existing space vehicles.
It also gives you a chance to fly recklessly around a simulated ISS, since they won't let you do that in real life.
iss-sim.spacex...

[@nasaman5440]

Ksp players: As you can see, I am overqualified for this position.

[@zachthomas7810]

BILBO KERMAN top moment for sure

[@scio7838]

I messed it up the first because the controls are inverted compared to ksp

[@akshaygowrishankar7440]

This sim makes KSP look and feel like an arcade game.

[@akshaygowrishankar7440]

@@finntrotter3986 stock game: **exists** also KSP developers never claimed to make a sim, so already less realistic than the SpaceX sim.

[@Zacho5]

After KSP and Orbiter, it was easy. lol

[@phiutubeful]

“This is too fast!” Him at 0.85564 m/s Me in ksp docking at over 5 m/s: uhhhhhh

[@jkenny1]

Where's my timewarp? My PC is so slow running the SpaceX simulator, 0.1m/s is brutal lol.

[@iCore7Gaming]

@@jkenny1 really? You must have a pc worse than a phone lol

[@0ptera]

To be fair KSP docking ports need a certain force to connect.

[@TaeSunWoo]

(Nervously sweats in 7m/s)

[@TheAechBomb]

@@0ptera and those ridiculous magnets

[@a.g.vianello5881]

I want "docking port alignment" mod for ksp with this interface

[@fridaycaliforniaa236]

Damn I can't agree more

[@chickenmonger123]

Hmmm... Are we still doing phrasing?

[@DanSlotea]

Go ahead, start programming!

[@ryanrising2237]

chickenmonger123 I’m not really sure you can misinterpret this. Unless “for KSP” is another euphemism I’m not aware of.

[@a.g.vianello5881]

@@chickenmonger123 Did I make a mistake? Can you correct me? I'm still learning English.

[@MuitoDaora]

Let's be honest. We are feeding the AI Autodock for Dragon.

[@muzero2642]

And what’s wrong with that? :)

[@spacetimelapses8244]

@@muzero2642 Well, looking at the average KSP-player: EVERYTHING :D

[@muzero2642]

Reenforcement learning bots are also trash. The poor ones just get burned.

[@supersonictumbleweed]

Awaken the Kraken!

[@lesto12321]

after learning some some KSP player is gonna pull off some sick maneuver

[@Luuk3333]

3:00 "you're gonna get bored by the sound of my voice right" Never.

[@Spooglecraft]

Wait, we were already 3min in when he said that? It felt way shorter.

[@PinataOblongata]

Re performing when the world is watching/under real-world stress, the old quote applies: "You will not rise to the occasion, you will fall to the level of your training." Re docking games on Teslas: Would be cool if you could play it to get your robot charging arm to dock with your plug port :D

[@Verpal]

I have seen people who ''rise to the occasion'', but usually that's when they aren't trained for something, and had to wing it, and turns out fine.

[@HuntingTarg]

@@Verpal "The first thing I want you all to do is to _forget the flight plan._ We are now improvising a new flight plan..." 👨‍🚀🚀

[@JBolbach]

Engineers: "Elon, we need to train our docking AI" Elon: "Hold my joint..."

[@LSPD1909]

*cyberjoint

[@alexanderwagner2851]

Yep. Sadly...

[@LSPD1909]

@@alexanderwagner2851 how?

[@zerstorer5006]

Me, flying around and ramming the station at over 10 m/s: *I'm about to end this man's whole career*

[@SRFriso94]

6:00 Oh boy, speedrunning fever has taken hold of Scott.

[@daveh7720]

"If I was as close as this in real life I wouldn't be going nearly as fast." Scott, if you were as close as that in real life I suspect you'd be squeeing like a schoolgirl. So say we all.

[@spudeleven5124]

LoL

[@olekaarvaag9405]

"I'm sure the sun is out there." -Scott Manley 2020

[@FoXenthusiast42]

There we go the right video!

[@tychothefriendlymonolith]

I thought I'd gone a bit odd in the AGC the first time round...

[@nihongobenkyoshimasu3190]

8:25 You can run it on any Tesla screen, you can open the Web Browser when in Park.

[@Synthpace]

KSP player here: Where can I switch to the ISS and turn its docking port to my direction?

[@kevinzheng7373]

No, it's "where can I switch to the ISS so I can dock that to the dragon with it's RCS thrusters?"

[@lboijens2173]

This got me thinking, you reckon there are actual procedures for that in case a spacecraft loses control or something like that?

[@Hirosjimma]

@@lboijens2173 you know, that's actually a very fair point.

[@achillesa5894]

And where is the SAS!

[@yastreb.]

@@lboijens2173 Sure. If the shuttle would have gotten stranded on a low orbit, unable to land or reach ISS, they would have brought the entire station lower to dock it with the orbiter and get the crew.

[@thenotflatearth2714]

Me and the boys turning the entire space station into a rotating detonation engine

[@eFeXuy]

"I'm sure the sun is out there" The quarantine hasn't beeen that long

[@patricks_music]

Pretty amazing they released this to the public. Sweet

[@Etrehumain123]

Flat Earth in the settings, a game for everyone

[@zacharyhutchison4006]

@starshipeleven do you still believe in existence?

[@Dimitri88888888]

@@zacharyhutchison4006 do you still believe in the existence of beliefs?

[@ibimssss]

not for us dino earthers

[@Bozok53]

Earth is a pyramid morons

[@kyanhluong]

Now the game is accessible for flat earther (not space/space program denial tho)

[@mxg75]

The ISS model is out-of-date, with the PMM logistics module still attached to Node 1 nadir; they moved it to Node 3 forward a while ago to free up a second berthing position for Dragon 1, Cygnus, and HTV.

[@JarrodBaniqued]

Matthew Geer Plus the NASA Docking System on the PMA looks too much like the earlier Shuttle APAS

[@DroneMee]

@hi there oh yah that's right the QRX-TUV is supposed to go there right.

[@nonicnik]

Oh that's what it was. I really wondered what this module is as it didn't appear in current maps of the station. Damn that must be a really old model. I thought the last spacecrafts on that port were some cygnus vessels.

[@serg3y]

Nerds! :D *secretly jealous*

[@joratto2833]

🤓🤓🤓

[@gajbooks]

Hotrods of the gods. That pun is more painful than having a tungsten roadster dropped on me from orbit.

[@Aengus42]

Phew! You said "Fly Safe" this time! My Kerbals will be relieved. They're feeling somewhat overworked & it'll help. 🚀🌌

[@FlatEarthMath]

6:30 Flat Earth for the purists out there... You're the best, Scott! :-)

[@mrpepin]

Didn't sleep the whole night, trying to do it. Finally succeeded around 8am. I'm tired as hell but it was totally working.

[@Spessforce]

As a veteran of Rogue System, I am quite good at this!

[@macdjord]

Inferior UI, though. No rate-of-change info on the offsets and no audio cues.

[@randallmacdonald4851]

I've flown it twice. Crashed the first time. Got it the second time. I feel bad because son-in-law got it first time (with my explanations!). This simulator is an awesome thing to spend time in. You have to fly slow and get all the parameters right before moving in. I cannot recommend this high enough. Totally awesome! Thank you, SpaceX!

[@bee42]

Well executed, Nasa should send you since there's seats still available for DM-2. I can see it from here: "Last minute passenger! Hi Bob Hi doug, I'm Scott Manley...fly safe"

[@tobyCornish]

at 4:13 I was totally expecting "The Blue Danube Waltz" to start playing...

[@TaeSunWoo]

KSP has been preparing me for this

[@0x0404]

Docking with KSP in space prepares you for so much

[@anatollegros3454]

Orbiter does it even better

[@dDoOyYoOuUtTuUbBeE]

Judging your "Progress" ? I thought it was a Dragon...

[@mikeksp9177]

haha

[@HiroNguy]

😁

[@alphaadhito]

*slow russian clap

[@telescopereplicator]

Scott, you forgot to mention that if you click on the white dot inside the grey triangle on the left or the grey circle on the right, the controls go to turbo mode. The spacecraft now responds much more. Movements are faster. When you enable it, the arrows turn orange. Do not forget to switch this mode off, once you get close to the ISS.

[@ЕгорПогиба-ц4ь]

I've tried to dock to Zvezda module. I've approached it really carefully, but Zvezda is just a texture so I flew into ISS. What an experience!

[@DELTAVROCKET]

A little trick is to do the roll correction first or you might have problems correcting your pitch and yaw.

[@_aullik]

you might have to do it in iterations. pitch and yaw might F up your roll again. so fast to get roll close, than get pitch and yaw close, than zero them all out.

[@zacharyhutchison4006]

@@_aullik roll first and align to horizon, pitch to zero, then yaw over to the target. No need to iterate.

[@paralleler]

Great job as always Scott!!! With kids out of school, I've added a link to my Nextdoor neighborhood so kids & parents can learn from this. To Infinity & Beyond!

[@TheWarmackAttack]

7 and 9 on the numpad are also bound as roll controls

[@Reth_Hard]

This made me realize how big the ISS is, this is HUGE!

[@fridaycaliforniaa236]

Woah, the DockingPortAlign mod is better than before ! =)

[@ZantharEos]

Okay this makes more sense, wasn't sure why you posted a promo video

[@alekosb.8704]

Nice, now write a code that flies it automatically

[@Apollorion]

SpaceX has already written that kind of code and a.o. tested it on the SpaceX-Demo1 mission where it succesfully docked the first orbiting Crew Dragon to the ISS.

[@parsaesfahanian712]

I'm guessing a reinforcement-learning agent can do this with insane precision and real fast!

[@michaelbuckers]

Writing a program that can dock space vessels is easy. The hard part is making input modules that can provide the program with accurate information, so that it doesn't mates with the station 15 meters off the docking port at 50 m/s.

[@alekosb.8704]

@@Apollorion i meant in the sim

[@armchairrocketscientist4934]

Plot twist: the game is providing the real spacecraft training data

[@andriimartynov83]

I have never played KSP, but managed to succesfully dock from the 2nd attempt. It was an awesome experience!

[@Pintuuuxo]

Thank you Scott. First thing after watching this video: looking for the Dragon Simulator on the Net. :-)

[@4stringmanagmaildcom]

Scott could you do a video on explosive bolts? How do the stage separations work? How do they keep shrapnel from damaging the remaining spacecraft? Everyone seems to take them for granted yet one failure (failure to separate, or shrapnel damaging an important component or system) and the flight is doomed. Your video are extremely informative! Thank you!

[@markanderson1088]

Glad you’re now wishing us to fly safe again. After your last video I was about to crash.

[@mera-mori]

Thank you so much - I couldn't figure out what controls did what and this was part of a school assignment

[@eliaspuolakka290]

This was super easy I bet a small child could do it. However the mobile version originally had a bug (they fixed it) that if you hit the left side right arrow the whole thing resets that makes the docking little harder but still really doable as you only need to move left. You can also roll and hit left again to move to the other direction.

[@iCore7Gaming]

Just timed my self and got a time of 1 minute 16 seconds. You definitely can try speed run this in a few seconds. Someone has to try this!

[@ectogaming20]

I was amazed this was silky smooth on my 5 year old ipad. Second time was the charm for me lol

[@amon_san]

for me as well. could've been on the first try though if i had bothered to read the instructions

[@TheBerkut88]

Yep, second too. Flew in general direction of Medium Earth Orbit on first attempt :)

[@yacinesenouci6680]

Lol my laptop started hating me a couple meters from the ISS... Although to be fair, the computer I am using is 9 years old lol. I have a computer that is only like 2 years old but it is currently loading KSP.

[@davidhunter9360]

@@amon_san Haha same.

[@MrPDawes]

Reminds me of manually docking in Elite. I always did that at speed as I was great at it.

[@pauld6967]

Hi Scott. Yes, I am also looking forward to the launch on the 27th. Normally I would try to go down to Florida but will have to make do with taking the day off and watching on television.

[@zuzusuperfly8363]

I was surprised to see people on Reddit having trouble doing this, but I guess if you're not familiar with how inertia works in space it could be incomprehensible. I did it my first try but didn't know you could adjust sensitivity, so it took me 5-10 minutes. It's kinda fun and meditative honestly.

[@eerolz8758]

Would be nice to actually have leaderboard for the speedruns of this sim :D My own PB was in like 10 tries 1min 26sec I did try TAS, and got to under a minute with it.

[@Inimbrium]

1 min 30 for me. I know what I'll be doing later!

[@nonicnik]

Only 1:40 but I stopped the time trial after some tries to just fly around the station at close proximity

[@SimonBuchanNz]

Without having tried it, I feel like you need to do something like 10 consecutive successes otherwise it's just luck.

[@eerolz8758]

@@SimonBuchanNz well yeah, there will be alot of failures if you start trying to dock that fast. But speedrunning isn't really about succeeding every time. When going for sub 1:40 times, I have about 50% chance of coming in too fast, since the tactic is to accelerate until you are in the halfway point, and then start decelerating, and at the same time correct your orientation and position. If you do it using macros, you can accelerate and decelerate much faster and much more accurate, so you can be much faster when coming in.

[@PlanetCypher_]

Clicking on the dots on the two controls you get larger reactions on the thrusters, then go back to small reactions when you get close to the iss.

[@Jimfoxyboy]

Got me thinking back when I used to play quite a bit of the game Descent. One of the early keyboard layouts had most of the translation and rotational controls on the keypad. A and Z was your forwards and backwards. Plus some other keys for a few other things on that side as well, which probably attributed to the particular layout. I'd gotten pretty used to playing it that way, granted, it was a bit of a finger dance when things got hectic.

[@kousikv2247]

Tried this today on my mobile phone, did it in the first attempt.. thanks for the explanation!!

[@rapter3567]

I used to have to drive to NASA just to play the space shuttle docking simulator.. Thank you SpaceX for making this available! (P.s. Scott Manley, nice video)

[@nonicnik]

I so want a more feature rich version of this. Random starting position. Day and night cycle. Restricted fuel usage. And a more high def ISS model. That would be sooo awesome.

[@Casonplayz]

Aslo the game starting on the launchpad

[@Chrisamic]

I've flown the sim three or four times now. It gets a lot easier and you quickly learn to make three corrections at the same time.

[@modrarybivrana5654]

pretty cool. took me two tries but then I actually paid attention to what controls did what... thanks

[@ThePancakeGuy1337]

Can't wait for all the speedruns

[@chuckfinley7023]

Had all balls....amped up the speed and coast it in....right stuff baby..

[@danieljensen2626]

I've always wondered how well my ksp experience would translate to actual space craft, this does look pretty familiar. I'm definitely dependent on RCS and orientation controls, or at least know where the prograde/retrograde are, but I got pretty good at doing rendezvous and docking. For rendezvous I need the orbital predictions, but I could do it without needing actual maneuver nodes at least.

[@FalconWing1813]

This was very cool, hope they expand this . Nice job Space X

[@orenong]

Hey, are you in his discord? I need the link! thanks!

[@FalconWing1813]

@@orenong lol did not know he had a discord lol lol

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

Scott flying at 1m/s within 170m distance: If you were this close to the space station, you might not go this fast Everyone docking in KSP: Okay, last 20m , let's slow down to 5 m/s

[@pentagramprime1585]

I'm gonna have to find a way to play this with my niece/nephew via facetime. Thanks.

[@WolfPeste]

Oh, god, it's like first docking in Elite all over again!

[@bcstudios519]

I've set like 5 alarms for that day. I AM SO EXCITED!!! Thanks for this vid too!

[@lithostheory]

Can’t wait for the speed running community to pick this game up :^D

[@MrGonzonator]

You can toggle between small and large adjustments by clicking on the centre buttons.

[@frostnetz]

3:01 "[...] you're gonna get bored by the sound of my voice, right?" x'D yeah no, thats never gonna happen Mr. Manley.

[@Joe.Rogan.]

Good teacher. Nailed it first time.

[@jaysonl]

Interesting. I'm almost tempted to write a simple translation layer to interface my 3DConnexion SpaceMouse to it.

[@vrnsieo]

I think the world needs an Interstellar version of this simulator!

[@PeterPetermann]

that was a lot easier than I expected, the only thing that did make this a bit of a challenge to me is that pitch is inverse to what I'm used to

[@RCAvhstape]

Dragon models exist for the Orbiter Spaceflight Sim. Done these kinds of maneuvers many times in Orbiter with various vehicles, usually Space Shuttle and ISS. One thing to think about, I don't know how the Dragon's thrusters are configured, but I believe NASA frowns upon letting your hot corrosive jet wash over the station's surfaces. Space Shuttle always set up the approach so that thruster firings would not blast the station, and used orbital mechanics such that as the Shuttle reached the docking port it would come to almost exactly zero relative velocity with no thrust needed.

[@jasonlast7091]

Looking at the ISS in this video... That thing really is damn cool. It's so spacey and futuristic!

[@MichaelSwan66]

2 days later finally docked dragon on the simulator .I can see why they were hands off for docking :)

[@gcewing]

We've certainly come a long way since the DSKY!

[@JxH]

The old LUNAR LANDER sim for the win !!

[@camielkotte]

Scott, we all are excited.... Yes we are.

[@Bratfalken]

Docking the circular spinning station in 2001 a Space Odyssey should be fun! Or the fast spinning junk in Interstellar! ;)

[@mifftyislive]

if you turn around, there is a telsa roadster just floating there. It seems to be really picky with what angle of yaw and pitch you look at it, but if you turn yaw 144 degrees and then move back a bit, there's just a roadster-sport having a good time in space, sadly with no star man.

Third time is the charm. So as soon as I figured out that you can dock with the keyboard. On the second flight I did a walk around a station. In any case a fun thing for KSP player.

[@turtleplates]

Im going to watch the launch and it will be my first launch in person cant wait !!!

[@brycenorth9892]

I can't wait to see people speedrunning ISS docks

[@Zerbey]

Well, made it on my first attempt without bending anything. So much fun.

[@George-fu8pl]

You can use WASDQE for translation and arrow keys for roll and yaw

[@mrfantasticxx]

I just did it. Managed to get all the orientation values on 0.0. I'm so happy with myself, took like 5 mins lol

[@movax20h]

You should make a video about how the position and orientation relative to the ISS is determined in real life. It is actually pretty complicated.

[@griff46]

Tried on my phone first, that was too difficult with the touch screen. Then on the keyboard it was a piece of cake! (I play KSP as well and would like to see something like this when docking)

[@andylaweda]

thank you for saying "zed" instead of "zee" as a fellow Scot. (I got my physics degree at Edinburgh University and graduated in 1992.)

[@rybaxs]

Scott, you forgot to show the PRECISION controls... The middle button in the keyboard, you can use QWEASD and 789456 keys only... but Toggle Precision needs a mouse click

[@markgimenez2509]

i like the fact that there are 114 comments, 83 likes, 2 dislikes, etc. yet it says that there are no views.

[@thebaccathatchews]

Summoning Salt speedrun documentary in 5...4...3...

[@oggdu3766]

You know the world is over when Scott starts playing mobile games.

[@vimalramachandran]

No experience with Kerbal Space Program, excited about playing this game!

[@AlfredoRodriguez3]

any I/O hooks so that you can try an automated docking?

[@gordslater]

I need more coffee - can't get my yawn angle zerod out

[@hycron1234]

Same.

[@TimPeterson]

I was using 7 and 9 on the number pad for roll

[@fxarts9755]

flexing with his spaceship flying knowledge

[@boilerdam]

There's an app-game for both iOS and Android called "SoyuzSim" that is quite a bit more technical than this simulator. That allows for multiple docking options into ISS and also reparking a spacecraft that is already at a parking spot, to make space for another incoming craft. It's pretty awesome!

[@wyattb3138]

I see this as a cool little side project that SpaceX software engineers wanted to do since a lot of them were former game developers.

[@orenong]

Hey, are you in his discord? I need the link