Perhaps there should be a "rendevous" step in between Orbital Insertion and crew transfer? IIRC before Gemini 6/7 it was uncertain whether two spacecraft could really get that close to one another in only a few hours from launch.Yes, that was the concern, however the reality for both sides was that orbital
rendezvous was not so difficult to achieve. Although some missions did (for one reason or another) burn more fuel than planned (Gemini 10 comes to mind), to my knowledge no manned orbital rendezvous has ever failed.
The physical act of
docking (when one spaceship loves another spaceship
very much...
) is another matter. There have been near-failures saved by the crew after multiple tries (Apollo 14), failures to dock (Soyuz 2/3 (pilot error) and Soyuz 15 (electronics failure)) and life-threatening collisions (Progress M-34/Mir).
The
Liftoff! rulebook states,
Docking failures do not have charts associated with them. Instead, the effects of a failure in a docking is treated specially. Normally a failed docking will carry no adverse effects other than a budget reduction. However, when a docking fails on a lunar landing mission, the results can be quite serious. If a docking fails on the way to the moon (before the actual landing attempt), then the mission is scrubbed. Carry the rest of the mission out as if it was a lunar orbital, but treat it as a failure. If the docking fails after the landing attempt (while the astronaut is in the LEM) then the astronaut(s) in the LEM is (are) stranded. Each stranded astronaut must either succeed in an emergency EVA . . . or the mission is a catastrophic failure.
If I were writing a computer simulation, I would put in separate rolls for 'rendezvous' and 'docking', but in a tabletop game this is a needless complication.
I do believe there should be a docking failure chart. In fact, I may put one in my latest revision:
S - ORBITAL ACTIVITIES (DOCKING)(Capsules and minishuttles)01-80 Docking mechanism fails to latch. Roll 1d10.
1-3 Repeated tries succeed in getting 'capture'. Continue with mission.
4-0 All attempts fail. If the docking target is a manned LM, each member
of the crew must make an emergency EVA (EVA Safety/2) to return
to the capsule. If all crew are safe, the mission is still a success.
81-00 Collision! Roll 1d10.
1-4 Target spacecraft is damaged. If the docking target is a manned LM,
each member of the crew must make an emergency EVA (EVA Safety/2)
to return to the capsule. If all crew are safe, the mission is still a success.
5-8 Both spacecraft are damaged. If the docking target is a manned LM,
each member of the crew must make an emergency EVA (EVA Safety/2)
to return to the capsule. Capsule suffers 25% penalty on RECOVERY
safety check. If all crew are safe, the mission is still a success.
9-0 Both spacecraft destroyed in high-speed collision. Catastrophic failure.
One more thing:
Liftoff! allows docking safety to max-out at 100%. I would make that 98%, so that the chance of failure is always there.
