The two spacecraft comprising Orbital Express — the Boeing-built Autonomous Space Transport Robotic Operations (ASTRO) servicing spacecraft and the Ball Aerospace & Technologies-built NextSat — were launched together in March 2007 on an Atlas 5 rocket.

After getting a two-week reprieve to attempt one last high-wire space maneuver, the Pentagon’s Orbital Express satellites were decommissioned July 21-22, bringing the successful satellite-servicing and robotics demonstration to an end.

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Brian Berger is editor in chief of SpaceNews.com and the SpaceNews magazine. He joined SpaceNews.com in 1998, spending his first decade with the publication covering NASA. He was named senior staff writer in 2004, a position he held until being named...