The art of bringing spacecraft into contact without a collision has never been as simple as science fiction depicts it. This month we celebrate 50 years of space docking and look at the latest control techniques. Today we take for granted that two spacecraft can easily locate each other in the vastness of the orbital realm and come together for a docking. As we mark the 50th anniversary of the first such union, it turns out that, having perfected this basic tool of the rocket business, European engineers are working on some clever new twists for the future.