Docking question

[Nick7892]

Is it possible for a sub orbital craft to dock with an orbiting space station. If it is possible what happens to the sub orbiting craft? Will the orbiting space craft make the sub orbiting craft orbital?

Edited February 16, 2014 by Nick7892

[Awaras]

That would be called a head-on collision, and the only thing it would make would be a cloud of debris....

[FanaticalFighter]

Well, something that is sub-orbital is moving a lot slower than the space station, so if you manage to get the craft near the space station, the space station will zoom by it really, really fast. If you manage to somehow get aligned and try to "dock," you'll smash right through the space station. So, no, it is impossible.

EDIT: Ninja'd

[Nick7892]

Yeah, I was thinking that.

[Vanamonde]

It's a question of terminology, Nick7892. To dock, you must match speed and direction (velocity) with the target so that you make contact gently and don't just collide. But if you match velocity with something in orbit, you are also in orbit and therefore no longer sub-orbital. That being said, we often do fly our KSP ships directly from launch to a rendezvous, which is basically doing what you're asking about. So yes, it can be done, but only if you don't use those terms for it.

[lammatt]

to dock, you have to have about the same velocity (aka, about the same DIRECTION and SPEED)

so...

you have the knowledge to answer that yourself now.

[DannySwish]

Well, you CAN dock with something sub-orbital, it's just that you'd have to make the space station also sub-orbital. I had to do something similar once around Moho to rescue Jeb. His lander didn't have enough fuel to get back into orbit and was falling back towards the planet, but I managed to dive in with a rescue craft, dock, and re-establish orbit before crashing. It was the first successful docking I ever did, actually. (#pro)