A team from the California Institute of Technology has tested its ASTRA autonomous robotic system in space, assembling a section of a reflector antenna without astronaut assistance, the institution reported. The trial ran over six months in low Earth orbit as part of a manufacturing programme funded by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
ASTRA launched on 30 March 2026 from Vandenberg Space Force Base aboard a Momentus Vigoride 7 vehicle on the SpaceX Transporter-16 mission. Taking up roughly one cubic metre of payload volume, the device held two pre-assembled sections, a robotic arm manipulator, composite tubes, aluminium joints and a Kapton reflector film. In orbit, the robotic arm picked stored components and assembled a third section of the truss structure.
Time limits prevented the team from completing the full 1.4-metre-diameter antenna of 11 sections before the mission finishes in December 2026. Daily communications were limited to seven or eight windows of roughly 15 minutes each. Ground engineers evaluated fixes on an identical replica in their laboratory before sending instructions to the spacecraft.
Sergio Pellegrino, a Caltech aerospace professor directing the demonstration, said this was the first time a structure was built autonomously in space. DARPA program manager Andrew Detor said the agency aims to develop assembly methods for structures measuring hundreds of metres or kilometres, adding, "Today nothing approaching that scale can be achieved."
Also reported by 지디넷코리아
