Nearly 20 years ago, two commercial satellites conducted a U.S. government mission that transformed the trajectory of the U.S. space economy. While the 2007 Orbital Express mission may not have the same household name recognition as other space programs, it proved what the entire national space community can achieve through collaboration to develop autonomous in-space servicing.
DARPA and NASA collaborated on that mission to demonstrate safe, cost-effective robotic and autonomous satellite servicing in orbit. For the first time, two vehicles launched in a paired configuration successfully completed multiple in-space servicing demonstration scenarios, including fuel and hardware transfers and multiple rendezvous from both short range and from a distance of more than 400 kilometers.
