On Mon, 3 Aug 2020 11:52:48 -0000 (UTC), jon wrote:


Under certain circumstances (sic) a docking probe can be greatly assisted
in entering a receptacle, by using sprung loaded peripheral rollers. In
the nuclear industry we use such a profile to explore inside highly active
pipework/vessels, looking for cracks.

The first US Russian space mission Apollo–Soyuz took place in July
1975, one of the Cosmonauts called out the Russian word for "raped"
when the probe was captured, but it was edited out of recordings.

Another fun fact, that mission was the last US manned splashdown until
yesterday.