The next decade of space robotics

In the same way that the launch of Yuri Gagarin in April 1961 announced the beginning of human space flight, last year' s flight of the German ROTEX robot flight experiment is heralding the start of a new era of space robotics. After a gap of twelve years since the introduction of a new capability in space remote manipulation, ROTEX is the first of at least ten new robotic systems and experiments which will fly before the year 2000.