Up to now, no systematic literature on the damping performance of space structures has been available. This paper outlines the damping performance required in current seismic design and the status of vibration measurement, and represents the results of analysis on collected vibration measurement data. The analysis revealed that the friction damping due to slippage between connection bolts and structural members was found to be the major cause of the damping of space structures. Furthermore, it was found that the design of space structures needs to take into consideration that the damping ratio is not proportional to the frequency.
