Momentus, NASA and U.S. Space Force to demo rendezvous, in‑orbit servicing and multispectral sensing on Vigoride 7 in LEO

Advances commercial in‑orbit servicing and autonomous RPO: Vigoride 7 will perform rendezvous, proximity ops, formation flying and in‑orbit servicing under a NASA Space Act Agreement, launching no earlier than March 2026 on a SpaceX Transporter. This builds on recent government and commercial efforts to validate close‑proximity servicing.

Signals defense adoption of commercial platforms: the mission includes a multispectral sensor test for the U.S. Space Force, highlighting growing military reliance on commercial rendezvous and sensing capabilities and partnerships with non‑traditional suppliers such as Momentus; see recent moves into military rendezvous work with optical guidance.

Part of a broader industry trend of rapid, low‑cost RPO demonstrations and autonomous close approaches led by commercial firms; this follows successful autonomous rendezvous demos like the Remora single‑camera testbed.