Orbital Express
Orbital Express was DARPA's two-spacecraft demonstration of autonomous satellite servicing. Boeing's ASTRO servicer and Ball Aerospace's NEXTSat client conducted coordinated free flight, rendezvous, capture, mating, fuel transfer, and modular-hardware exchanges. Relative-navigation sensors supported the approach and docking sequence, while automated planning helped manage changing procedures and spacecraft resources.
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Identity
- Aliases
- Orbital Express ASTRO and NEXTSatOE satellite servicing demonstrationASTRO NEXTSat mission
- Name
- Orbital Express
- Status
- completed
Details
- Astronauts
- -
- Description
- Orbital Express was DARPA's two-spacecraft demonstration of autonomous satellite servicing. Boeing's ASTRO servicer and Ball Aerospace's NEXTSat client conducted coordinated free flight, rendezvous, capture, mating, fuel transfer, and modular-hardware exchanges. Relative-navigation sensors supported the approach and docking sequence, while automated planning helped manage changing procedures and spacecraft resources.
- Destination
- Earth orbit for cooperative autonomous rendezvous, capture, refueling, and component-transfer demonstrations
- Outcome
- Successful. The 2007 demonstration met or exceeded its test objectives across eight scenarios involving different lighting conditions and approaches. Mated operations transferred fuel and batteries and replaced a computer; unmated operations tested separations, far- and near-field rendezvous, proximity flight, capture, and mating. DARPA decommissioned the system in July 2007.
- Programs
- -
- Start Date
- 2007-03-09
- Vehicle Families
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- Creation Time
- October 29, 2026 at 15:25:30 UTC
- Updated Time
- October 29, 2026 at 15:25:30 UTC
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