ISS Robot Refueling Demo Continues

HOUSTON — NASA and Canadian Space Agency (CSA) ground control teams combined efforts June 19-20 to begin the second phase of a robotic refueling demonstration outside the International Space Station, a pioneering effort to establish engineering strategies for extending the operating lives of aging satellites. The three-day second phase of the two-year, $22.6 million Robotic Refueling Mission (RRM) employes the 58-ft.-long Canadarm2; Canada’s Special Purpose Dextrous Manipulator (Dextre), a two-armed, 11.5-ft.-long robotic handyman; and the Goddard Space Flight Center’s satellite simulator, an engineering demonstrator delivered and installed on the station’s long solar power truss by the crew of NASA’s final shuttle mission, STS-135, in July 2011 ...