On March 9, NASA astronauts aboard the International Space
Station quietly began learning the space exploration equivalent
of how to remove and replace a gas cap. It's the first in a
series of small demonstrations that are intended to have big
future consequences, an attempt to learn how to refuel a
spacecraft in space instead of on the ground. The experiments
have been hotly anticipated in the space community. The Robotic
Refueling Mission demonstrations were developed by the SSCO team
headed up by Frank Cepollina at the NASA Satellite Servicing
Capabilities Office (SSCO), formed in 2009 at NASA Goddard Space
Flight Center. The team is known for its previous experience
planning and executing five highly successful servicing missions
for the Hubble Space Telescope. The past and future of service
In the forty years since the dangerous repairs due to the loss
of Skylab's sun shield in 1973, tools, techniques, robotics and
spacesuits have improved immeasurably. We've had plenty of
chances to practice. In 1984, a