Orbiter.ch Space News

lundi 26 octobre 2020

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Spacecraft Goes for Early Stow of Asteroid Sample

NASA - OSIRIS-REx Mission patch.

Oct. 26, 2020

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission is ready to perform an early stow on Tuesday, Oct. 27, of the large sample it collected last week from the surface of the asteroid Bennu to protect and return as much of the sample as possible.

Image above: This illustration shows NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft stowing the sample it collected from asteroid Bennu on Oct. 20, 2020. The spacecraft will use its Touch-And-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism (TAGSAM) arm to place the TAGSAM collector head into the Sample Return Capsule (SRC). Image Credits: NASA/University of Arizona, Tucson.

On Oct. 22, the OSIRIS-REx mission team received images that showed the spacecraft’s collector head overflowing with material collected from Bennu’s surface – well over the two-ounce (60-gram) mission requirement – and that some of these particles appeared to be slowly escaping from the collection head, called the Touch-And-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism (TAGSAM).

A mylar flap on the TAGSAM allows material to easily enter the collector head, and should seal shut once the particles pass through. However, larger rocks that didn’t fully pass through the flap into the TAGSAM appear to have wedged this flap open, allowing bits of the sample to leak out.

Because the first sample collection event was so successful, NASA’s Science Mission Directorate has given the mission team the go-ahead to expedite sample stowage, originally scheduled for Nov. 2, in the spacecraft’s Sample Return Capsule (SRC) to minimize further sample loss.

"The abundance of material we collected from Bennu made it possible to expedite our decision to stow,” said Dante Lauretta, OSIRIS-REx principal investigator at the University of Arizona, Tucson. “The team is now working around the clock to accelerate the stowage timeline, so that we can protect as much of this material as possible for return to Earth."

Unlike other spacecraft operations where OSIRIS-REx autonomously runs through an entire sequence, stowing the sample is done in stages and requires the team’s oversight and input. The team will send the preliminary commands to the spacecraft to start the stow sequence and, once OSIRIS-REx completes each step in sequence, the spacecraft sends telemetry and images back to the team on Earth and waits for the team’s confirmation to proceed with the next step.

TAGSAM collector head into the Sample Return Capsule (SRC). Animation Credit. NASA

Signals currently take just over 18.5 minutes to travel between Earth and the spacecraft one-way, so each step of the sequence factors in about 37 minutes of communications transit time. Throughout the process, the mission team will continually assess the TAGSAM’s wrist alignment to ensure the collector head is properly placed in the SRC. A new imaging sequence also has been added to the process to observe the material escaping from the collector head and verify that no particles hinder the stowage process. The mission anticipates the entire stowage process will take multiple days, at the end of which the sample will be safely sealed in the SRC for the spacecraft’s journey back to Earth.

“I’m proud of the OSIRIS-REx team’s amazing work and success to this point,” said NASA’s Associate Administrator for Science Thomas Zurbuchen. “This mission is well positioned to return a historic and substantial sample of an asteroid to Earth, and they’ve been doing all the right things, on an expedited timetable, to protect that precious cargo.”

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, provides overall mission management, systems engineering and the safety and mission assurance for OSIRIS-REx. The University of Arizona, Tucson leads the mission’s science observation planning and data processing. Lockheed Martin Space in Denver built the spacecraft and is providing flight operations. Goddard and KinetX Aerospace, in Tempe, Arizona, are responsible for navigating the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. OSIRIS-REx is the third mission in NASA’s New Frontiers Program, which is managed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

Related article:

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Spacecraft Collects Significant Amount of Asteroid
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2020/10/nasas-osiris-rex-spacecraft-collects.html

Related link:

OSIRIS-REx (Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security Regolith Explorer): http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/osiris-rex/index.html

Image (mentioned), Animation (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Karen Northon/Grey Hautaluoma/Alana Johnson/GSFC/Nancy Neal Jones/University of Arizona/Erin Morton.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

NASA’s SOFIA Discovers Water on Sunlit Surface of Moon

NASA & DLR - SOFIA Mission patch.

Oct. 26, 2020

NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) has confirmed, for the first time, water on the sunlit surface of the Moon. This discovery indicates that water may be distributed across the lunar surface, and not limited to cold, shadowed places.

Image above: This illustration highlights the Moon’s Clavius Crater with an illustration depicting water trapped in the lunar soil there, along with an image of NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) that found sunlit lunar water. Image Credits: NASA/Daniel Rutter.

SOFIA has detected water molecules (H2O) in Clavius Crater, one of the largest craters visible from Earth, located in the Moon’s southern hemisphere. Previous observations of the Moon’s surface detected some form of hydrogen, but were unable to distinguish between water and its close chemical relative, hydroxyl (OH). Data from this location reveal water in concentrations of 100 to 412 parts per million – roughly equivalent to a 12-ounce bottle of water – trapped in a cubic meter of soil spread across the lunar surface. The results are published in the latest issue of Nature Astronomy.

“We had indications that H2O – the familiar water we know – might be present on the sunlit side of the Moon,” said Paul Hertz, director of the Astrophysics Division in the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Now we know it is there. This discovery challenges our understanding of the lunar surface and raises intriguing questions about resources relevant for deep space exploration.”

As a comparison, the Sahara desert has 100 times the amount of water than what SOFIA detected in the lunar soil. Despite the small amounts, the discovery raises new questions about how water is created and how it persists on the harsh, airless lunar surface.

Water is a precious resource in deep space and a key ingredient of life as we know it. Whether the water SOFIA found is easily accessible for use as a resource remains to be determined. Under NASA’s Artemis program, the agency is eager to learn all it can about the presence of water on the Moon in advance of sending the first woman and next man to the lunar surface in 2024 and establishing a sustainable human presence there by the end of the decade.

SOFIA’s results build on years of previous research examining the presence of water on the Moon. When the Apollo astronauts first returned from the Moon in 1969, it was thought to be completely dry. Orbital and impactor missions over the past 20 years, such as NASA’s Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, confirmed ice in permanently shadowed craters around the Moon’s poles. Meanwhile, several spacecraft – including the Cassini mission and Deep Impact comet mission, as well as the Indian Space Research Organization’s Chandrayaan-1 mission – and NASA’s ground-based Infrared Telescope Facility, looked broadly across the lunar surface and found evidence of hydration in sunnier regions. Yet those missions were unable to definitively distinguish the form in which it was present – either H2O or OH.

“Prior to the SOFIA observations, we knew there was some kind of hydration,” said Casey Honniball, the lead author who published the results from her graduate thesis work at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa in Honolulu. “But we didn’t know how much, if any, was actually water molecules – like we drink every day – or something more like drain cleaner.”

SOFIA Discovers Water on a Sunlit Surface of the Moon

Video above: Scientists using NASA’s telescope on an airplane, the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, discovered water on a sunlit surface of the Moon for the first time. SOFIA is a modified Boeing 747SP aircraft that allows astronomers to study the solar system and beyond in ways that are not possible with ground-based telescopes. Molecular water, H2O, was found in Clavius Crater, one of the largest craters visible from Earth in the Moon’s southern hemisphere. This discovery indicates that water may be distributed across the lunar surface, and not limited to cold, shadowed places. Video Credits: NASA/Ames Research Center.

SOFIA offered a new means of looking at the Moon. Flying at altitudes of up to 45,000 feet, this modified Boeing 747SP jetliner with a 106-inch diameter telescope reaches above 99% of the water vapor in Earth’s atmosphere to get a clearer view of the infrared universe. Using its Faint Object infraRed CAmera for the SOFIA Telescope (FORCAST), SOFIA was able to pick up the specific wavelength unique to water molecules, at 6.1 microns, and discovered a relatively surprising concentration in sunny Clavius Crater.

“Without a thick atmosphere, water on the sunlit lunar surface should just be lost to space,” said Honniball, who is now a postdoctoral fellow at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “Yet somehow we’re seeing it. Something is generating the water, and something must be trapping it there.”

Several forces could be at play in the delivery or creation of this water. Micrometeorites raining down on the lunar surface, carrying small amounts of water, could deposit the water on the lunar surface upon impact. Another possibility is there could be a two-step process whereby the Sun’s solar wind delivers hydrogen to the lunar surface and causes a chemical reaction with oxygen-bearing minerals in the soil to create hydroxyl. Meanwhile, radiation from the bombardment of micrometeorites could be transforming that hydroxyl into water.

How the water then gets stored – making it possible to accumulate – also raises some intriguing questions. The water could be trapped into tiny beadlike structures in the soil that form out of the high heat created by micrometeorite impacts. Another possibility is that the water could be hidden between grains of lunar soil and sheltered from the sunlight – potentially making it a bit more accessible than water trapped in beadlike structures.

For a mission designed to look at distant, dim objects such as black holes, star clusters, and galaxies, SOFIA’s spotlight on Earth’s nearest and brightest neighbor was a departure from business as usual. The telescope operators typically use a guide camera to track stars, keeping the telescope locked steadily on its observing target. But the Moon is so close and bright that it fills the guide camera’s entire field of view. With no stars visible, it was unclear if the telescope could reliably track the Moon. To determine this, in August 2018, the operators decided to try a test observation.

“It was, in fact, the first time SOFIA has looked at the Moon, and we weren’t even completely sure if we would get reliable data, but questions about the Moon’s water compelled us to try,” said Naseem Rangwala, SOFIA’s project scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center in California's Silicon Valley. “It’s incredible that this discovery came out of what was essentially a test, and now that we know we can do this, we’re planning more flights to do more observations.”

SOFIA’s follow-up flights will look for water in additional sunlit locations and during different lunar phases to learn more about how the water is produced, stored, and moved across the Moon. The data will add to the work of future Moon missions, such as NASA’s Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER), to create the first water resource maps of the Moon for future human space exploration.

In the same issue of Nature Astronomy, scientists have published a paper using theoretical models and NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter data, pointing out that water could be trapped in small shadows, where temperatures stay below freezing, across more of the Moon than currently expected. The results can be found here.

“Water is a valuable resource, for both scientific purposes and for use by our explorers,” said Jacob Bleacher, chief exploration scientist for NASA’s Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate. “If we can use the resources at the Moon, then we can carry less water and more equipment to help enable new scientific discoveries.”

SOFIA is a joint project of NASA and the German Aerospace Center. Ames manages the SOFIA program, science, and mission operations in cooperation with the Universities Space Research Association, headquartered in Columbia, Maryland, and the German SOFIA Institute at the University of Stuttgart. The aircraft is maintained and operated by NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center Building 703, in Palmdale, California.

B-roll footage related to this finding is available at: https://go.nasa.gov/2TnDWSd

Participate in a Reddit Ask Me Anything on our Moon exploration activities at 1 p.m. EDT Tuesday, Oct. 27: http://reddit.com/r/space

Learn more about SOFIA at: https://www.nasa.gov/sofia

Nature Astronomy: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-020-01222-x#_blank

Image (mentioned), Video (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Sean Potter/Felicia Chou/Ames Research Center/Alison Hawkes.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Glonass-K satellite launched from Plesetsk cosmodrome

ROSCOSMOS logo.

Oct. 26, 2020

On Sunday, October 25, 2020, at 22:08 Moscow time from the Plesetsk cosmodrome in the Arkhangelsk region, the combat crew of the Space Forces of the Aerospace Forces launched the Soyuz-2 carrier rocket developed by the Progress RCC (part of the Roscosmos State Corporation) with a new generation spacecraft of the GLONASS system. The launch of the carrier rocket and the insertion of the spacecraft into the calculated orbit took place in the normal mode.

Two minutes after the launch, the Soyuz-2 launch vehicle was taken for escort by means of the ground-based automated control complex of the German Titov Main Testing Space Center. At the estimated time, the Glonass-K spacecraft was launched into the target orbit by the Fregat upper stage manufactured by NPO Lavochkin (part of the Roscosmos State Corporation) and taken over to control ground assets of the Aerospace Forces. A stable telemetric connection has been established and maintained with the satellite. The onboard systems of the Glonass-K spacecraft are operating normally.

The spacecraft launched into orbit, created by the "Information Satellite Systems" company named after academician M.F. Reshetnev "(included in the perimeter of the State Corporation" Roscosmos "), replenished the orbital constellation of the Russian Global Navigation Satellite System GLONASS. Currently, the orbital constellation includes 28 spacecraft, of which 24 are used for their intended purpose, two spacecraft are in the orbital reserve, one new-generation spacecraft "Glonass-K" is undergoing flight tests. Another spacecraft is temporarily taken out for maintenance.

Today, the basis of the orbital constellation of the system is made up of Glonass-M spacecraft, which demonstrate high reliability. Replacing the orbital constellation with Glonass-K spacecraft will ensure the stable operation of the Russian navigation system and increase the accuracy of its navigation definitions up to tens of centimeters.

Spacecraft "Glonass-K" are designed in a leaky design, have a guaranteed lifetime in orbit increased to 10 years, reduced power consumption, and significantly less weight. Unlike its predecessors, "Glonass-K" carry two types of navigation signals - frequency division and code division. In addition to their main functions, they will transmit information to the COSPAS-SARSAT international search and rescue system in distress.

Related links:

КОСПАС-SARSAT / COSPAS-SARSAT: https://www.roscosmos.ru/28941/

ROSCOSMOS Press Release: https://www.roscosmos.ru/29474/

Images, Text, Credits: ROSCOSMOS/Orbiter.ch Aerospace/Roland Berga.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

dimanche 25 octobre 2020

SpaceX Starlink 14 launch Success

SpaceX - Falcon 9 / Starlink Mission patch.

Oct. 25, 2020

SpaceX Starlink 14 launch

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched 60 Starlink satellites (Starlink-14) from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, on 24 October 2020, at 15:31 UTC (11:31 EDT).

SpaceX Starlink 14 launch & Falcon 9 first stage landing, 24 October 2020

Following stage separation, Falcon 9’s first stage (B1060) landed on the “Just Read the Instructions” droneship, stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.

Falcon 9 first stage landed on the “Just Read the Instructions” droneship

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

vendredi 23 octobre 2020

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Spacecraft Collects Significant Amount of Asteroid

NASA - OSIRIS-REx Mission patch.

Oct. 23, 2020

Two days after touching down on asteroid Bennu, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission team received on Thursday, Oct. 22, images that confirm the spacecraft has collected more than enough material to meet one of its main mission requirements – acquiring at least 2 ounces (60 grams) of the asteroid’s surface material.

Animation above: Captured by the spacecraft’s SamCam camera on Oct. 22, 2020, this series of three images shows that the sampler head on NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is full of rocks and dust collected from the surface of the asteroid Bennu. They show also that some of these particles are slowly escaping the sampler head. Analysis by the OSIRIS-REx team suggests that bits of material are passing through small gaps where the head’s mylar flap is slightly wedged open. The mylar flap (the black bulge on the left inside the ring) is designed to keep the collected material locked inside, and these unsealed areas appear to be caused by larger rocks that didn’t fully pass through the flap. Based on available imagery, the team suspects there is plentiful sample inside the head, and is on a path to stow the sample as quickly as possible. Image Credit: NASA.

The spacecraft captured images of the sample collector head as it moved through several different positions. In reviewing these images, the OSIRIS-REx team noticed both that the head appeared to be full of asteroid particles, and that some of these particles appeared to be escaping slowly from the sample collector, called the Touch-And-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism (TAGSAM) head. They suspect bits of material are passing through small gaps where a mylar flap – the collector’s “lid” – is slightly wedged open by larger rocks.

“Bennu continues to surprise us with great science and also throwing a few curveballs,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA’s associate administrator for science at the agency’s headquarters in Washington. “And although we may have to move more quickly to stow the sample, it’s not a bad problem to have. We are so excited to see what appears to be an abundant sample that will inspire science for decades beyond this historic moment.”

The team believes it has collected a sufficient sample and is on a path to stow the sample as quickly as possible. They came to this conclusion after comparing images of the empty collector head with Oct. 22 images of the TAGSAM head after the sample collection event.

OSIRIS-REx TAGs Surface of Asteroid Bennu. Animation Credit: NASA

The images also show that any movement to the spacecraft and the TAGSAM instrument may lead to further sample loss. To preserve the remaining material, the mission team decided to forego the Sample Mass Measurement activity originally scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 24, and canceled a braking burn scheduled for Friday to minimize any acceleration to the spacecraft.

From here, the OSIRIS-Rex team will focus on stowing the sample in the Sample Return Capsule (SRC), where any loose material will be kept safe during the spacecraft’s journey back to Earth.

“We are working to keep up with our own success here, and my job is to safely return as large a sample of Bennu as possible,” said Dante Lauretta, OSIRIS-REx principal investigator at the University of Arizona in Tucson, who leads the science team and the mission’s science observation planning and data processing. “The loss of mass is of concern to me, so I’m strongly encouraging the team to stow this precious sample as quickly as possible.”

OSIRIS-REx TAGs Surface of Asteroid Bennu. Image Credit: NASA

The TAGSAM head performed the sampling event in optimal conditions. Newly available analyses show that the collector head was flush with Bennu’s surface when it made contact and when the nitrogen gas bottle was fired to stir surface material. It also penetrated several centimeters into the asteroid’s surface material. All data so far suggest that the collector head is holding much more than 2 ounces of regolith.

OSIRIS-REx remains in good health, and the mission team is finalizing a timeline for sample storage. An update will be provided once a decision is made on the sample storage timing and procedures.

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, provides overall mission management, systems engineering and the safety and mission assurance for OSIRIS-REx. Lockheed Martin Space in Denver built the spacecraft and is providing flight operations. Goddard and KinetX Aerospace of Tempe, Arizona, are responsible for navigating the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. OSIRIS-REx is the third mission in NASA’s New Frontiers Program, which is managed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

Related articles:

OSIRIS-REx TAGs Surface of Asteroid Bennu
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2020/10/osiris-rex-tags-surface-of-asteroid.html

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Spacecraft Successfully Touches Asteroid
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2020/10/nasas-osiris-rex-spacecraft.html

Related links:

OSIRIS-REx (Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security Regolith Explorer): http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/osiris-rex/index.html

Bennu: https://www.nasa.gov/bennu

Animation (mentioned), Image (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Karen Northon/Grey Hautaluoma/Alana Johnson/GSFC/Nancy Neal Jones/University of Arizona/Erin Morton.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Back to Work for Expedition 64 Trio

ISS - Expedition 64 Mission patch.

October 23, 2020

International Space Station (ISS). Animation Credit: NASA

It is back to work for three Expedition 64 crewmates today following a day of rest on Thursday. The trio is ramping up space research while continuing the upkeep of the International Space Station.

NASA astronaut Kate Rubins began her day replacing batteries in devices that detect smoke and compounds in the station’s atmosphere. She then serviced a variety of research hardware including Spectrum which images proteins in fluorescent light. Rubins then worked on a device that applies a known force to a crew member and uses the resulting acceleration to calculate an astronaut’s mass in microgravity.

Image above: Expedition 64 Flight Engineer Kate Rubins works on research hardware inside the Kibo laboratory module. Image Credit: NASA.

Station Commander Sergey Ryzhikov had a light duty day Friday. The two-time resident of the orbiting lab spent some time dusting and cleaning crew quarters before replacing components in the Russian toilet.

First-time space flyer Sergey Kud-Sverchkov inspected Russian hardware today including a food warmer and an onboard control system. The cosmonaut Flight Engineer also configured a pair of laptop computers with assistance from mission specialists on the ground.

Related links:

Expedition 64: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition64/index.html

Spectrum: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Facility.html?#id=7450

Space Station Research and Technology: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/overview.html

International Space Station (ISS): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html

Image (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Mark Garcia.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

NASA’s Refueling Mission Completes Second Set of Robotic Tool Operations in Space

ISS - Robotic Refueling Mission 3 (RRM3) patch.

Oct. 23, 2020

NASA’s Robotic Refueling Mission 3 (RRM3) has successfully completed its second set of robotic tool operations on the International Space Station, demonstrating key techniques for transferring cryogenic fluids, used as coolants, propellants, or for life support systems in orbit. These technologies have applications for extending spacecraft life and facilitating exploration to the Moon and Mars.

Images above: Visual Inspection Poseable Invertebrate Robot 2 (VIPIR2) before launch (top left), and in space during operations (top middle, top right); and Cryogen Servicing Tool (CST) before launch (bottom left), and in space during operations (bottom middle, bottom right). Image Credit: NASA.

From October 19-22, RRM3 – with the help of the station’s Dextre robot – connected an 11-foot long hose to a designated cryogen port while simultaneously using an inspection tool to verify the hose connection. This marks the first time that Dextre has had tools in both arms completing RRM3 operations. RRM3 supplied the hose and robotic tools of a future servicer spacecraft, as well as a piping system representing that of a satellite in need of fueling.

Images above: For the first time, Dextre simultaneously uses its two arms to wield robotic refueling tools. The right arm uses the Cryogen Servicing Tool to maneuver a cryogen hose, and the left uses Visual Inspection Poseable Invertebrate Robot 2, an inspection camera, to verify placement. Images Credit: NASA.

During the demonstration, Dextre simultaneously operated two RRM3 tools: the Cryogen Servicing Tool (CST) and the Visual Inspection Poseable Invertebrate Robot 2 (VIPIR2) tool. One of Dextre’s arms held the CST, which was needed to grab and guide the hose into the port. The second arm extended the snake-like VIPIR2 camera into the piping system to ensure the hose was inserted correctly.

Images above: The Visual Inspection Poseable Invertebrate Robot 2 (VIPIR2), extends its snake-like borescope camera for free-space checkout, to later be inserted into the RRM3 module’s piping system to verify proper cryogen hose placement. Images Credit: NASA.

The mission launched in December 2018 and conducted its first set of robotic operations in August 2019, during which it demonstrated its Multi-Function Tool 2 and a robotic-friendly hose adapter system. This RRM3 demonstration added experience and information to NASA’s knowledge base on transferring cryogenic fuel in space.

Image above: The Cryogen Servicing Tool allows Dextre to maneuver the 11-ft long cryogen hose to a port on the RRM3 module. Image Credit: NASA.

Prior to an April 2019 venting operation, RRM3 stored liquid methane for four months, the longest in-space storage of a cryogen without any loss of fluid. This record had been difficult to achieve previously because cryogens vaporize in a process called boil-off when not maintained at a low enough temperature.

Image above: The International Space Station's Dextre robotic arm uses the Visual Inspection Poseable Invertebrate Robot 2 (VIPIR2) tool to complete operations on Robotic Refueling Mission 3 (RRM3). Image Credit: NASA.

RRM3 was developed and operated by NASA’s Exploration and In-space Services (NExIS) projects division (formerly known as the Satellite Servicing Projects Division) at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The demonstration was funded by the Space Technology Mission Directorate’s Technology Demonstration Missions program, which is located at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

Related article:

Robotic Tool Operations Bring In-Space Refueling Closer to Reality
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2019/08/robotic-tool-operations-bring-in-space.html

Related links:

Robotic Refueling Mission 3 (RRM3): https://sspd.gsfc.nasa.gov/RRM3.html

International Space Station (ISS): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html

NASA’s Exploration and In-space Services (NExIS): https://sspd.gsfc.nasa.gov/

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC): https://www.nasa.gov/goddard

Images (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Isabelle Yan/Goddard Space Flight Center, by Vanessa Lloyd and Isabelle Yan.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch