NASA schedules robotic spacecraft launch

After a series of delays, NASA has scheduled April 15 as the launch date for the first robotic spacecraft designed to rendezvous in orbit with other satellites without any human intervention, officials said.

If all goes as planned, the DART spacecraft – short for Demonstration of Autonomous Rendezvous Technology – will soar into space off the California coast, catch up with an orbiting Pentagon satellite and manoeuvre around it, making close approaches and moving away.