Image: Spacecraft bus for satellite servicing mission arrives at NASA Goddard

On Sept. 20, 2023, the On-orbit Servicing, Meeting, and Manufacturing 1 (OSAM-1) spacecraft bus arrived at NASA’s Goddard Area Flight Middle in Greenbelt, Maryland, after its journey from a Maxar facility in California. Following this crucial milestone, engineers at Goddard can start to combine the mission’s servicing payload onto the bus and start to check the built-in spacecraft in simulated space environments.

When integration and testing are full, OSAM-1 will probably be able to exhibit robotic satellite servicing applied sciences in space. The OSAM-1 mission is deliberate to be the primary to robotically refuel a spacecraft not designed for on-orbit servicing. The servicer will rendezvous with, grapple, and berth the government-owned Landsat 7 spacecraft, after which use a collection of instruments to replenish its hydrazine gasoline tank.

Along with the mission’s servicing aims, OSAM-1 will even embrace an meeting demonstration supplied by industrial associate Maxar, the identical firm that supplied the spacecraft bus. That demonstration will use a robotic arm from the Area Infrastructure Dexterous Robotic (SPIDER) payload to assemble a useful Ka-band antenna on orbit from stowed hexagonal items.

Beforehand, the mission included a producing demonstration referred to as MakerSat, which deliberate to make use of the SPIDER arm to fabricate a beam. Nonetheless, that part of the mission has been descoped as mission managers refocus assets on the servicing and meeting elements of the mission.