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A spacecraft with two flexible robotic arms is on its way to geosynchronous orbit after launching earlier this week on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, kicking off a decade-long mission to open new frontiers in satellite use.
The Mission Robotic Vehicle, owned by Northrop Grumman, orbited from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Tuesday. Three small pilot pods, each operating as a stand-alone aircraft, accompanied the MRV on a Falcon 9 rocket.
The Falcon 9 delivered all four payloads within an hour of liftoff. It will take about a year for the satellites to move from their original elliptical orbits to orbits more than 22,000 miles (about 36,000 kilometers) across the equator. At this location, the MRV and three Mission Extension Pods (MEPs) will orbit the Earth, serving as a host of civilian and military communications satellites, missile warning towers, and a number of spy satellites.
