Abstract: Flexible capture mechanism of large-scale space end-effector based on steel cables is developed with respect to an important space capture principle,namely large-tolerance and flexible capture.Owing to cable's flexibility and the difficulty in fast sequential modeling and control in space environment,a discrete control model of the flexible steel cables is established to solve the modeling problem of steel cables.Via the discrete model,dynamics for the end-effector's flexible steel cable capture mechanism capturing a space free-flying carry cargo is analyzed.Experiments show that the steel cable model is correct and the derivation of the capture dynamics is reasonable.