Related Research Articles
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military.
Spaceflight is an application of astronautics to fly spacecraft into or through outer space, either with or without humans on board. Most spaceflight is uncrewed and conducted mainly with spacecraft such as satellites in orbit around Earth, but also includes space probes for flights beyond Earth orbit. Such spaceflight operates either by telerobotic or autonomous control. The more complex human spaceflight has been pursued soon after the first orbital satellites and has reached the Moon and permanent human presence in space around Earth, particularly with the use of space stations. Human spaceflight programs include the Soyuz, Shenzhou, the past Apollo Moon landing and the Space Shuttle programs, with currently the International Space Station as the main destination of human spaceflight missions while China's Tiangong Space Station is under construction.
SSL, formerly Space Systems/Loral, LLC (SS/L), of Palo Alto, California, is a wholly owned manufacturing subsidiary of Maxar Technologies.
STS-72 was a Space Shuttle Endeavour mission to capture and return to Earth a Japanese microgravity research spacecraft known as Space Flyer Unit (SFU). The mission launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida on 11 January 1996.
The Boeing X-37, also known as the Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV), is a reusable robotic spacecraft. It is boosted into space by a launch vehicle, then re-enters Earth's atmosphere and lands as a spaceplane. The X-37 is operated by the United States Space Force, and was previously operated by Air Force Space Command until 2019 for orbital spaceflight missions intended to demonstrate reusable space technologies. It is a 120-percent-scaled derivative of the earlier Boeing X-40. The X-37 began as a NASA project in 1999, before being transferred to the United States Department of Defense in 2004.
Orbital Express was a space mission managed by the United States Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and a team led by engineers at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). The Orbital Express program was aimed at developing "a safe and cost-effective approach to autonomously service satellites in orbit". The system consisted of two spacecraft: the ASTRO servicing satellite, and a prototype modular next-generation serviceable satellite; NEXTSat. The mission launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on 8 March 2007, aboard an Atlas V expendable launch vehicle. The launch was part of the United States Air Force Space Test Program STP-1 mission.
The Synchronized Position Hold Engage and Reorient Experimental Satellite (SPHERES) are a series of miniaturized satellites developed by MIT's Space Systems Laboratory for NASA and US Military, to be used as a low-risk, extensible test bed for the development of metrology, formation flight, rendezvous, docking and autonomy algorithms that are critical for future space missions that use distributed spacecraft architecture, such as Terrestrial Planet Finder and Orbital Express.
Autonomous Space Transport Robotic Operations (ASTRO), is an American technology demonstration satellite which was operated as part of the Orbital Express program. It was used to demonstrate autonomous servicing and refuelling operations in orbit, performing tests on the NEXTSat satellite which was launched with ASTRO for that purpose. Launched in March 2007, it was operated for four months, and then deactivated in orbit.
The ETS-VII, or Engineering Test Satellite No. 7, was a satellite developed and launched by the National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA). It is also known as KIKU-7. It was launched aboard an H-II rocket from Tanegashima Space Center, on 28 November 1997. The ETS-VII was equipped with a 2-meter-long (6.6 ft) robotic arm, which was used to carry out several experiments related to rendezvous docking and space robotics. It was the world's first satellite to be equipped with a robotic arm, and also Japan's first uncrewed spacecraft to conduct autonomous rendezvous and docking operations successfully, decades after the docking of the Soviet Kosmos 186 and Kosmos 188 spacecraft in 1967. Although it was originally intended to be used for 1.5 years, the satellite was functional for a period of almost five years. ETS-VII eventually decayed from orbit on 13 November 2015.
USA-212 was the first flight of the Boeing X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle 1, an American robotic vertical-takeoff, horizontal-landing (VTHL) spaceplane. It was launched aboard an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral on 22 April 2010, and operated in low Earth orbit. Its designation is part of the USA series.
Docking and berthing of spacecraft is the joining of two space vehicles. This connection can be temporary, or partially permanent such as for space station modules.
Space Infrastructure Servicing (SIS) is a spacecraft concept being developed by Canadian aerospace firm MDA to operate as a small-scale in-space refueling depot for communication satellites in geosynchronous orbit.
A Mission Extension Vehicle (MEV) is a type of spacecraft designed to extend the functional lifetime of another spacecraft through on-orbit satellite servicing. They are 2010s-design small-scale in-space satellite-refueling spacecraft first launched in 2019. The MEV spacecraft grew out of a concept proposed in 2011 by ViviSat, a 50/50 joint venture of aerospace firms US Space and Alliant Techsystems (ATK). The joint venture was created in 2010 for the purpose of designing, producing and operating the MEV program.
The Robotic Refueling Mission (RRM) is a NASA technology demonstration mission with equipment launches in both 2011 and 2013 to increase the technological maturity of in-space rocket propellant transfer technology by testing a wide variety of potential propellant transfer hardware, of both new and existing satellite designs.
Altius Space Machines is a subsidiary company of Voyager Space Holdings, based in Broomfield, CO dedicated to engineering the future in Aerospace.
On-orbit satellite servicing refers to refueling or repairing space satellites while in orbit.
NovaWurks is a seed-stage startup company that is developing a set of novel small satellite technologies that will enable new capabilities for commercial operations in space. NovaWurks is located in Los Alamitos, California. In 2013, the company received an important contract worth up to US$46,200,000 from DARPA for components for the Phoenix Project.
RSat-P is a microsatellite built by the United States Naval Academy (USNA) in Annapolis, Maryland. The small spacecraft is a 3U CubeSat intended to demonstrate capabilities for minor in-orbit repair of a much larger, conventional spacecraft.
Redwire Corporation is an American aerospace manufacturer and space infrastructure technology company headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida. The company was formed on June 1, 2020 by the private equity firm AE Industrial Partners.
References
- ↑ "To Test A Satellite Dock, DARPA Built a 37-Ton Air Hockey Table". Gizmodo.com. Retrieved 2012-09-23.
- ↑ "FREND:Pushing the Envelope of Space Robotics" (PDF). Nrl.navy.mil. Retrieved 2012-09-23.
- ↑ Alfred W. McCoy, Beyond Bayonets and Battleships - Space Warfare and the Future of U.S. Global Power, Tom Dispatch , 2012-11-08
 | Adapters |  | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mechanisms |
| ||
| Navigation systems | |||
 | This article about one or more spacecraft of the United States is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |