DART (satellite)

Orbital Sciences Corporation (OSC) was the prime contractor for construction, launch and operation of the DART spacecraft with a project cost of US$110 million (2005).

[citation needed] The craft autonomously navigated via a series of orbit transfer maneuvers to reach the target satellite.

It was planned to demonstrate station keeping, docking axis approach, circumnavigation, and a collision avoidance maneuver.

A later failure of the collision avoidance system, which was relying upon inaccurate position and velocity information, allowed DART to ultimately collide with MUBLCOM at a relative speed of approximately 1.5 meters per second.

Throughout the autonomous proximity operations, DART used its limited propellant faster than anticipated, which caused "a premature end to the mission" 3 minutes 49 seconds after the collision.

[citation needed] The DART Mishap Investigation Board determined that only 11 of the 27 defined mission objectives were partially or fully met, all of which related to the launch, early orbit, rendezvous, departure, and retirement phases.