The ISS is around 400km above us. A rocket needs a speed of at least 8km per second to get to space. If we cut out the acceleration part it could in theory reach the ISS in around 50 seconds. Even if we factor in the acceleration part etc. it should still be very quick up there. Yet the fastest possible time to get to the ISS is 4 hours. That would be an average speed of 100Km/h which is way slower than the speed of the rocket after a few seconds. Why the long journey?
In: Planetary Science
Another factor is that you don’t want to perform a lot of maneuvers near the ISS. All of the gas from the engine exhaust travels far, and could cause unwanted vibration of the station, or directly damage it.
You want to approach slowly, carefully, and with just small puffs of your maneuvering thrusters.
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