space.com — Two prototype spacecraft, one wielding its own robotic arm, are poised to launch spaceward late Thursday on a three-month mission to test methods to robotically refuel and service satellites orbiting high above Earth. Built for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Orbital Express vehicles are aimed at demonstrating..
Mar 8, 2007 View in Crawl 4
locke40Mar 9, 2007
this was a stupid article... please don't read this crap
mofochickamoMar 9, 2007
The satellite was launch just a few minutes ago (around 10:25 EST). It was available via web cast at <a class="user" href="http://www.ulalaunch.com/index_webcast.html.">http://www.ulalaunch.com/index_webcast.html.</a>Future benefits of this research project include extending the life of current and future satellites which may allow services such as GPS to continue at a lower cost to the tax payer. The current and costly method is to launch a replacement satellite. These cost saving benefits also apply to commercial satellites as well, which would reduce space junk (fewer satellites), pollution (fewer launches), and time and money spent developing and launching replacement satellites.
dogsouljahMar 9, 2007
If it can approach a satellite and use it's arms to fix it, doesn't take much for it to destroy one either, without any evidence since there is no sign of any explosion.Very smart.
Closed AccountMar 9, 2007
if it can sidle up next to a satellite to refuel it, it sidle up next to a satellite to disable it.coming from DARPA, this is definitely a wink to foreign aerospace that we still control the highest of high ground.
jqp123Mar 9, 2007
"Our goal is to demonstrate on-orbit refueling, component exchange and satellite repair--all without a human operator,"Isn't this what the space shuttle was supposed to do? It only took us several decades and a few hundred billion dollars to finally admit that nothing about the space shuttle makes any sense. For example, the upcoming Hubble repair mission using the space shuttle will be more expensive than the original Hubble. This looks like a much more practical and sensible alternative.
amadeus2490Mar 9, 2007
I prefer the name "Planet Express."