Could a spaceship traveling at 5% of $c$ feasibly deploy a shuttle to dock with a nearby spaceship traveling in the same direction at the same speed?

Question

I'm wondering how feasible the scenario described in the title would be. It's for a book that I'm writing.

Answer 1

The answer is yes because the relative speed between spaceships is zero. This is all that matters. The shuttle doesn't experience any more force than it would if deployed at rest relative to a stationary observer.

Answer 2

Ben points out the correct answer.

I wanted to point out, though, that there is no absolute reference frame. The only thing that matters is the relative velocity between two objects. If they're both in a vacuum and have zero velocity relative to each other, you might as well pick the reference frame where they're both at rest and go from there. This will be incredibly useful in authoring, since orbital systems don't make a ton of sense without this.

I would highly recommend getting a grip on the absolute basics of this kind of relativity as well as orbital mechanics if you're writing. If the ships aren't accelerating, it will always be easiest to switch to one of their rest frames.