The Company's world-renowned space robotics and on-orbit servicing capabilities span more than 30 years, including 91 on-orbit servicing missions with the Space Shuttle program plus continuing robotic operations to build and maintain the International Space Station (ISS).
The Company is a mission prime contractor, with a proven heritage and suite of end-to-end system capabilities that are the foundation for new human spaceflight and unmanned missions to Low Earth Orbit, Geostationary Orbit, and beyond. In each mission area, the Company's solutions can support logistics delivery, satellite servicing, debris removal, relocation of assets, and infrastructure maintenance.
The Company extends the reach and capabilities of the human explorer with solutions such as the ISS Dextre that can now perform on-orbit infrastructure servicing operations previously only undertaken by Extravehicular Activity (EVA) astronauts. In the future, these technologies will support space infrastructure assembly, maintenance, and servicing, plus the robotic construction of human habitats. On-orbit servicing robotics lower the cost of critical space infrastructure maintenance by performing mundane and routine infrastructure servicing tasks, while freeing up the human explorer to perform the more challenging and cognitive activities.
The U.S Government has selected the Company's advanced robotic arm solution as the baseline for the NASA Restore and DARPA Geo robotic servicing programs that seek to use robotics to interact with geostationary satellites. Robotic satellite servicing can create a new paradigm for re-deploying or extending the operating life of on-orbit assets, as opposed to the prevailing “launch and leave” approach.
Together, these capabilities point to new opportunities in future space endeavours, in the form of EML-2, the Earth-Moon Libration Point 2, a spot in space near the far side of the moon that may play a key role as a stationary gateway for exploration missions to the moon, Mars and beyond. Current Company technology is a proven choice to build, maintain, and supply such a station with robotics, and support human crews en route to lunar or planetary missions.
The Company works extensively with international industrial and academic partners to serve a wide range of government agencies, while supporting a number of strategic partners for the new generation of commercial space missions plus emerging opportunities in human and robotic space exploration.