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In April, Boeing’s Autonomous Space Transport Robotic Operations (Astro) satellite eased up to the Ball Aerospace NextSat, docked with it, and successfully transferred fuel and parts, with no human intervention. This program, dubbed Orbital Express, was the first autonomous refueling and repair of one satellite by another—
heralding an end to expensive manned repair missions. Astro used a laser-and-reflector guidance system to continuously monitor its speed and angle of approach relative to NextSat, and a robot arm reached out and grabbed the target satellite when it was in range. darpa.mil
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