Orbital Express: Testing On-Orbit Servicing

Astro checks out NextSat(click to view full) The Orbital Express advanced technology demonstration couples a prototype servicing satellite (ASTRO) and a surrogate next generation serviceable satellite (NextSat). Together, they are meant to test robotic, autonomous, on-orbit refueling and reconfiguration of satellites. If that were possible, it would mean faster, less risky missions to maintain and extend the lives of America’s critical military satellite fleet – and the technology would have more than a few civilian/NASA uses, as well. The Orbital Express Program Flight 1 test program(click to view full) USAF Lt. Col. Fred G. Kennedy, DARPA’s Orbital Express program manager, told Aviation Week that “it will take the technical excuse off the table for on-orbit servicing… In the 1990s, we talked about on-orbit servicing with Space Command – it was always seventh or eighth on the priority list. TThere were responses like ‘zero-g propellant transfer can’t be done.'” There have been successful experiments by Japan and the US Air Force Research Lab that that demonstrated components of on-orbit servicing. Nonetheless, the task before Orbital Express is non-trivial. Even a small chance of collision will destroy the economic model for orbital servicing. In 2006, NASA’s Demonstration of Autonomous Rendezvous Technology (DART) […]