<h2>AAS 97-185</h2>
<h2>GENERAL FORM OF THE SPACECRAFT TERMINAL RENDEZVOUS  EQUATIONS AND STATE TRANSITION MATRIX                                                        </h2>
<h4>  T. E. Carter, Eastern Connecticut State University                                                                                                                      </h4>
<h2> Abstract </h2>
 Linearized equations of motion are useful in describing the terminal rendezvous  phase of a mission or in satellite stationkeeping.  This paper presents a brief  survey of the types of linear models in rendezvous studies, followed by a new  general model that incorporates much previous work as special cases.  The work  combines some ideas in nineteenth century celestial mechanics with some recent  discoveries.  Because of the generality of this new model, much of the clutter is  avoided in designing a relatively simple state transition matrix that is applicable  to a variety of problems.