Mighty Eagle

The Mighty Eagle (also known as the Ethan Chapman) was a prototype robotic lander developed by NASA at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

The vehicle is an autonomous flying testbed that is used for testing hardware, sensors and algorithms. These sensors and algorithms include such things as onboard cameras that, with specialized guidance, navigation and control software, could aid in the capture of orbiting space debris, in-space docking with a fuel depot, docking of a robotic lander with an orbiting command module and the rendezvous of multiple unmanned stages for deep space human exploration of the Solar System.