NASA has taken a major step toward executing its ambitious plan to create and launch a robotic spacecraft capable of refueling and servicing satellites in orbit. On Tuesday, the space agency announced that it had awarded a $127 million contract to the Palo Alto, California-based satellite company Space Systems/Loral (SSL) for the mission, dubbed Restore-L.
Under the Restore-L Spacecraft Bus and Support Services contract, SSL would have three years to build the robotic spacecraft.