I'm curious as to what anyone is speculating regarding the mission durations. It seems that a small reusable craft shouldn't necessarily have a requirement that

I'm curious as to what anyone is speculating regarding the mission durations. It seems that a small reusable craft shouldn't necessarily have a requirement that it stay in orbit for one or two years. Since the three tests that were done all had long durations, I really wonder what the mission profile for this thing is. Some sort of readiness is needed, that is, it needs to wait in orbit, rather than relying on a launch schedule. Launch -> deploy a payload -> wait -> capture a payload (either the one already deployed or some other one) -> return to Earth The longest shuttle mission was 17 days, and they deployed and recaptured two satellites in that time. It's possible these are used as a platform for servicing existing Air Force/government assets in space. If you look at Hubble as an example, it required servicing every 2-4 years. Space instruments suffer pretty steady degradation, and various transient events can cause that to degradation to accelerate. If you spend a few billion to launch an instrument, and you need to replace it entirely every few years, you're spending a lot of money on replacements, but it may only be small parts that need to be replaced or repaired. Having a "pick up truck" of modular, drop-in components waiting in orbit could greatly extend the life of surveillance equipment and reduce the amount of downtime (either out of commission, or operating with reduced coverage).