NASA's Robotic Satellite Servicing Demonstration Delayed until Mdrch

摘要

NASA's Robotic Refueling Mission, a space station-based demonstration effort caught up in a cascading series of delays following the last summer's crash of a Russian cargo module, will finally begin its first on-orbit satellite servicing tests in March, the project's lead said. "We will go through the first tasks from March throughjune, and then pick it up again with the refueling tasks from July through September [and] October," said Frank Cepollina, principal investigator for the Robotic Refueling Mission at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. March 6 is the target date for the first task. "That's removing these gas fittings and cutting safety wire and cutting T-valves and demonstrating that we can mechanically manipulate gas fittings on various spacecraft," Cepollina said. The ultimate goal, he said, "is to be able to demonstrate that we can capture and refuel satellites that were never designed for in-space refueling."