CAPE CANAVERAL SPACE FORCE STATION, FL –  A ground breaking robotic mission dubbed MRV-MEP has the goal of extending the lifetime of aging, ailing and malfunctioning satellites residing in geosynchronous orbit (GEO) and is aiming for liftoff on atop a veteran SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on July 21 from the Florida Space Coast.

This flight also counts as a very rare SpaceX Falcon 9 first stage rocket booster that will be expended at the conclusion of the powered flight

The Northrop Grumman-built Mission Robotic Vehicle is equipped with three jet packs called Mission Extension Pods – hence the ungainly name of MRV-MEP or Mission Robotic Vehicle-Mission Extension Pods

This new commercial spacecraft built be Northrop Grumman is a robotic servicing mission capable of inspection, repair, refuel, reposition and relocate and even upgrading satellites orbiting in GEO, at an altitude of 22,236 mi or 35,786 km, and will latch onto them using two 10-foot (3-m) long highly capable robotic arms!

It can also be used for removal of space debris which is an increasing problem with each passing day

The twin robotic arms on the MRV were funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and uses twin robotic arms developed by the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, with support from NASA for the Robotic Servicing of Geosynchronous Satellites (RSGS) payload.

SpaceX is targeting Tuesday, July 21 for launch of the Northrop Grumman MRV-MEP mission to geosynchronous transfer orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

The four-hour window opens at 5:15 p.m. ET July 21.

If needed, a backup launch opportunity is available on Wednesday, July 22 during a four-hour window that opens at the same time.

Enjoy our photos taken at pad 40 on July 21 by the team of Ken Kremer and Jean Wright for Space UpClose with the integrated and veteran SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket vertical at the launch complex

Several of the photos taken by Ken Kremer were featured on Fox 35 Orlando during his live interview with the station about the upcoming MRV-MEP mission as well SpaceX Starship Test Flight 13

Ken did interviews about MRV-MEP on local ABC, NBC and Fox

MRV-MEP is the first privately owned, operational robotic in-space servicing mission that extends the life and resilience of satellites in geosynchronous orbit (GEO) through on-orbit servicing.

Due to the additional performance needed to launch these payloads to geosynchronous transfer orbit, this will be the 32nd and final flight for the Falcon 9 first stage booster supporting this mission, B1069.32

B1069.32  previously launched CRS-24, Eutelsat HOTBIRD 13F, OneWeb 1, SES-18 and SES-19, and 27 Starlink missions.

The MRV-MEP  mission robotic Vehicle is Similar in concept to but much more powerful than LINK working to save NASA’s Swift space telescope

Ken Kremer recent TV interviews about MRV-MEP launch, Starship 13 test flight, SpaceX, Blue Origin, NASA Artemis and more

https://www.fox35orlando.com/video/fmc-lwemqxj6fxz5fkb3

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/spacex-attempts-another-test-flight/vi-AA28xN3w?ocid=BingNewsVerp

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