Kinematically coupled spacecraft relative motion without attitude synchronization assumption

A kinematically coupled spacecraft relative translational and rotational motion model without attitude synchronization assumption is derived. A kinematically coupled relative motion is described by combining the relative translational and rotational dynamics of arbitrarily selected points on the spacecraft. This kinematically coupled relative motion model is derived by extending the existing nonlinear relative translational dynamics to include the kinematic coupling effect due to feature points which are not the centers of the mass. The kinematically coupled relative motion is illustrated by two numerical simulation scenarios: spacecraft formation flying and final phase of rendezvous.