After Successful Mission, Orbital Express Put Out to Pasture

摘要

After getting a two-week reprieve to attempt one last high-wire space maneuver, the Pentagon's Orbital Express satellites were decommissioned July 21-22, bringing the successful satellite-servicing and robotics demonstration to an end.rnThe two spacecraft comprising Orbital Express — the Boeing-built Autonomous Space Transport Robotic Operations (ASTRO) servicing spacecraft and the Ball Aerospace & Technologies-built NextSat — were launched together in early March on an Adas 5 rocket. The experiment, sponsored by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) was a pathfinder forrnfuture, long-lasting satellites capable of being serviced on orbit. Over the last four and a half months, ASTRO demonstrated its ability to approach NextSat with limited interaction from the ground, grapple the spacecraft with its robot arm and transfer fuel and hardware.