Multiple-path Beyond Line-of-sight Communications spacecraft

MUBLCOM was a communications demonstration spacecraft later reused as the cooperative target for NASA’s 2005 DART rendezvous experiment. Its optical retroreflectors supported laser-based relative navigation; long- and short-range reflector arrangements were designed for the video guidance sensor. The target could broadcast its GPS state to the approaching spacecraft. DART’s subsequent collision did not destroy MUBLCOM, which reset and recovered operational status after the encounter.