ETS-7, a rendezvous docking and space robot technology experiment satellite result of the engineering model development work

NASDA is to launch an engineering test satellite called ETS-7 in the year 1997 to perform the in-orbit test of rendezvous docking (RVD) and space robot (RBT) technologies. ETS-7 consists of a chaser satellite and a target satellite whose weight are 2.2 t and 0.4 t respectively. These satellite will be launched by NASDA's H-11 rocket into a low Earth orbit. The ETS-7 RVD experiment aims to develop an automated RVD system and the RBT experiment aims to develop a satellite mounted telerobotic system.