Darwin McDaniel
NASA and Maxar Technologies have completed the critical design review of a spacecraft platform the company developed for an agency program that aims to refuel a satellite in orbit.
Maxar said Monday the five-day assessment took place at a manufacturing facility in Silicon Valley and sought to determine whether the bus design meets Restore-L program requirements.
The company won a $127M contract in late 2016 to develop, deploy and operate a robotic space vehicle for the in-orbit satellite servicing mission. CDR was the third of six key mission milestones.
Mike Edwards, senior vice president of strategic growth at Maxar, said technologies demonstrated through the Restore-L project would support future efforts to explore the moon and beyond.
Edwards added the company aims to pioneer satellite servicing as an option for customers who aim to increase resiliency and cost-effectiveness of their operations in space.
Maxar is helping NASA build the spacecraft along with two robotic arms to capture and refuel the U.S. Geological Survey's future Landsat 7 remote sensing satellite.
The company aims to complete the spacecraft bus and deliver the platform to the agency in 2020 for integration with a robotic payload.
The mission is scheduled to launch sometime in 2022.Â
