Abstract:Spacecraft relative motion studies the motion characteristics of two or more spacecraft relative to each other, which has extensive applications in fields such as space rendezvous and docking and space station construction and operation. The teaching of relative motion faces challenges such as numerous theoretical formulas, counter-intuitive motion characteristics, and difficulty in designing ideological and political education cases. The course instructor designed a teaching process and method of “historical background, basic theory, thought experiment, in class discussion, programming practice, engineering cases”, and interspersed it with ideological and political education cases such as the history of rendezvous and docking achievements and the China’s new scheme for lunar sample return. Teaching practice has shown that this design of teaching and ideological and political education can effectively improve students’ learning performance, achieving an effect of mutual promotion and supplementation between ideological and political education and professional knowledge education.