Posted: Wed, Jul 11, 2007, 7:09 AM ET (1109 GMT)
DARPA's Orbital Express mission, scheduled to end earlier this month, will remain active while Air Force officials study potential additional experiments that could be performed by the spacecraft. Orbital Express, a pair of satellites designed to test on-orbit servicing technologies, completed its final planned experiment at the end of June and was scheduled to be decommissioned last week, after proposals by DARPA and NASA to perform additional tests were rejected. However, officials said Tuesday that those decommissioning plans were put on hold to allow the Air Force to propose additional tests. The scope of those tests, and how long they would take to conduct, were not disclosed. A decision on extending the Orbital Express mission could come as soon as Thursday.

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