Docking and berthing of spacecraft

The docking and berthing of spacecraft roughly refers to the joining of two space vehicles. This connection can be temporary, or semipermanent such as for space station modules.

Docking specifically refers to joining of two separate free-flying space vehicles. Berthing refers to mating operations where an inactive module/vehicle is placed into the mating interface of another space vehicle by using a robotic arm. Because the modern process of un-berthing is manually laborious, berthing operations are seen as unsuited for rapid crew evacuations in the event of an emergency.