Overview
- The ASTRA system, developed by Caltech under DARPA’s NOM4D program, autonomously assembled a third truss bay in low Earth orbit after launching on March 30, 2026.
- ASTRA uses a robotic manipulator, motorized dispensers, an onboard computer, composite tubes, aluminum joints, and a perforated Kapton reflective film to pick, place, and connect repeated structural bays.
- Engineers deployed two preassembled bays and then the robot built the third, attached the reflective film and pushed that section outward, but the demonstration did not finish the planned 1.4-meter reflector before the mission deadline.
- Limited contact windows of roughly 15 minutes per day forced teams to troubleshoot on the ground using a flight spare at Caltech and send tested command updates to the spacecraft.
- DARPA and project leads say the result validates the core concept for in-orbit assembly and sets a path to refine autonomy and scale the method toward much larger antennas, telescopes, and solar arrays that cannot fit in launch fairings.