DART Vehicle Arrives At Vandenberg For Pre-Flight Preparations

The Demonstration of Autonomous Rendezvous Technology (DART) spacecraft, built for NASA by Orbital Sciences Corporation, has arrived at the Vandenberg Air Force Base for final testing and pre-flight preparations. Orbital plans to launch the craft from a Pegasus launch vehicle, also built by Orbital, in mid-October of this year. The DART mission will demonstrate the technologies required for the United States to perform automated docking in space, currently only done by the Russians. Another automated vehicle, the European Space Agency's (ESA's) Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) is currently in design with the first launch expected in the second half of 2005.

   More...