How will ATV-4 approach the ISS?

[astropapi1]

I've been following ATV-4 and the ISS on this webpage: http://www.n2yo.com/?s=39175|25544 (Thanks to nothke BTW), and I noticed that ATV-4 orbits at ~260 Km, while the ISS orbits at ~ 415 Km. That's a pretty aggressive approach, even for KSP standards.

Am I missing something?

[Rune]

Am I missing something?

Yup, you are missing the fact that the Earth is much more massive than Kerbin. GEO is at ~39,000 kms, while KEO is at ~2,800. As you can probably guess by now, the relative difference in orbit is much less in the case of LEO than if you had two orbits in KSP separated a couple hundred kilometers. Try more like 1/10 to scale distances (very, very roughly, as in completely inaccurate scientifically, but good rule of thumb)... this would turn out to be the rough equivalent of chasing a ~100km station form a ~80km orbit.

Rune. Not so crazy after all.

[astropapi1]

Yeah, I know Kerbin is 1/10 the size of earth... but there's still a big gap between both orbits. Even in KSP, you'd normally chase a ~100 km from a >95 km orbit.

[NovaSilisko]

The docking won't take place for over a week I think. It's going to slowly phase its orbit up to match that of the ISS.

[nothke]

(leftest white dot ATV, rightest white dot, ISS)

As you can see in this image from orbit plane normal track, it's barely a pixel xD (at least you get the sense of scale)

[Sᴄɪɴᴛɪʟʟᴀᴛᴏʀ]

Docking is due on the 16th I think.