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| Orion III entering the open docking bay. |
With the growth in the size of ships, Centauri Spaceworks needed a larger docking bay. This required a larger docking bay door. Instead of just enlarging the existing door, engineers divided the door to create a double door.
In the previous single door design, the force of undocking and docking the door at its hinges would knock the structure out of position. The structure was always required to supply a bit of station keeping thrust to maintain its position after the door opened or closed. It was theorized that the motion of two symmetric doors would cancel out, leaving the station at rest after the doors had completed their motion. However this was not the case and a bit of thrust is still required to maintain position.
The double doors do have the advantage of opening and closing faster than a single door. Each door only has to traverse half the distance.
