Now, Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL) is looking to launch a satellite into orbit and use a 'droid -- much smaller than the Astromech variety -- to control said satellite.
ENGADGET: SSTL using Android handsets to control satellites, conquer the final frontier
In August, Iran performed a test of a rocket capable of launching a satellite into orbit.
Science officials told cheering spectators minutes later that the rocket delivered an observational satellite into orbit.
The third stage put the satellite into orbit 27 seconds after the separation of the second stage.
It was North Korea's first successful use of a three-stage rocket to put a satellite into orbit.
The launch was South Korea's first successful attempt to put a satellite into orbit using its own rocket.
This time, a Soyuz-2 vehicle failed to put a communications satellite into orbit after lifting away from the country's Plesetsk spaceport.
In April, North Korea conducted a failed long-range rocket launch that it said was an attempt to put a satellite into orbit.
The game begins in 1957, with the preparations to launch the first satellite into orbit, and ends with the first Moon landing.
But it comes weeks after Pyongyang launched a long-range rocket which put a satellite in orbit, contravening international sanctions which ban tests of missile technology.
North Korea's nuclear test - its third - followed its apparently successful launch of a three-stage rocket to put a satellite into orbit in December.
The launch - which came weeks after North Korea successfully put its own satellite in orbit - had been delayed twice due to technical reasons.
Just a few weeks ago, Pyongyang took action that threatened to breach the deal, announcing its plan to put a rocket-mounted satellite into orbit by April 16.
FORBES: Deja Nukes: The U.S. Must Not Be Fooled Again by North Korea
While North Korea said this launch is to put a communications satellite into orbit, the U.S. believes it is a cover story to test its ballistic missile technology.
CNN: Analysis: Amid pending launch, N. Korea only shows half its hand
At this time last year, North Korea launched a rocket with the stated aim of putting a satellite into orbit to mark the 100th anniversary of Kim Il-sung's birth.
Putting a satellite into orbit on a long-range rocket as it did in December is a lot different from delivering a warhead to a desired location on such a rocket.
Iran successfully launched its first satellite into orbit last week, a step hailed by Iran's president as a "source of pride" for the Islamic republic, according to state-run news outlets.
In December, North Korea successfully launched a long-range rocket for the first time under what the United States and other Western nations say was the guise of putting a satellite into orbit.
CNN: U.S. to beef up missile defense against North Korea, Iran
Kim Seung-jo, South Korea's chief space official, told reporters that his country should be able to independently produce a rocket capable of putting a satellite into orbit by as early as 2018.
Pyongyang said the launch was aimed at putting a satellite into orbit, but it was widely criticised by the US, South Korea and Japan as a banned test of long-range missile technology.
The visit comes less than a month after North Korea put a satellite into orbit using a three-stage rocket - a move condemned by the US as a banned test of long-range missile technology.
BBC: Google head and former US governor in North Korea visit
As the Obama administration establishes its foreign policy, it must grapple with a strategy for U.S. relations with Iran, which has continued a controversial nuclear program and launched a satellite into orbit this week.
Mr Obama was not yet born in 1957, when the Soviet Union put the first satellite in orbit around the Earth, but the moment is remembered as a salutary shock to an America grown complacent.
The delegation's Pyongyang trip comes less than a month after North Korea put a satellite into orbit using a three-stage rocket - a move condemned by the US as a banned test of long-range missile technology.
North Korea launched a satellite into orbit atop a long-range rocket in December, conducted its third nuclear weapons test in February and announced earlier this month that it was abandoning the 1953 armistice that ended the Korean War.
After North Korea launched a rocket over Japan's airspace on Aug. 31--Pyongyang maintains it was merely an attempt to place a satellite in orbit--Tokyo quickly overcame its qualms about helping the U.S. develop an expensive theater missile defense (TMD) system to shoot down ballistic missiles.
The rocket was launched in the direction of 86 degrees at a launching station in Musudan-yi, Hwadae County, North Hamgyong Province at 1207, August 31, chuche 87 (1998) and correctly put the satellite into orbit at 12 hours 11 minutes 53 seconds in four minutes 53 seconds.
And after the Soviet launch of Sputnik, the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth, the United States went about winning the Space Race by investing in science and technology, leading not only to small steps on the moon but also to tremendous economic benefits here on Earth.
The rocket was intended to lift the satellite into an orbit 35, 696 kilometers above the earth, but during its final burn, the upper stage engine shut down four minutes early, and the satellite was released into too low of an orbit.
应用推荐