Overview

The Orbital Express Advanced Technology Demonstration Program is the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) mission that developed and demonstrated autonomous techniques for on-orbit refueling, reconfiguration and repair of satellites. This program used two satellites to perform this demonstration: the unmanned service vehicle, ASTRO, and the serviceable/commodities satellite, NEXTSat/CSC.

The Orbital Express spacecraft launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. on March 8, 2007.  

The technologies developed by the Orbital Express program support a broad range of future U.S. national security, civil and commercial space activities. The program's goal was to reduce risk for future on-orbit servicing missions by developing standard servicing interfaces and protocols. Technologies demonstrated may enable cost reductions for future space programs and improve mission utility through spacecraft life extension and/or improved maneuverability.

Our Role

Ball Aerospace provided the Next Generation Satellite and Commodities spacecraft (NEXTSat/CSC), ground support equipment, and participated in launch and mission operations.

Ball Aerospace’s NEXTSat/CSC employed architecture adapted from the Deep Impact Impactor, including software, command and data handling, and power control, as well as elements from Ball Aerospace Commercial Platform (BCP) 2000 spacecraft, such as the narrow-band telecom architecture from CloudSat.