System Testing Prior to on-orbit experiments, the functionality of the gripper integrated with Astrobee was tested using a third gripper unit. This ground unit allowed for continued flight software refinement and development of the flight ConOps. These tests were performed on the NASA Ames spacecraft robotic test bed, which is a 3 m × 3 m granite table that is precisely calibrated with a flat and level surface to simulate a 2D microgravity environment. Astrobee was placed on a carriage structure that floats on the table using frictionless air bearings [visible in Figure 8(b)]. The granite table platform allowed for full walkthroughs of the flight ConOps with the gripper integrated onto Astrobee and ground station control software being used by the Astrobee operator. As flight software integration proceeded for the integrated gripper/Astrobee system, each integration milestone was validated through granite table testing. This allowed for modular testing and verification of communication between particular subsystems, e.g., verifying commanding and telemetry information between the perching arm Teensyduino microcontroller and the perching arm PIC microcontroller. The floating air bearing tests provided some initial indication of the need to calibrate the time delay between the last available measurements from the time-of-flight distance sensor to the command to tension the cables. For a planar system, there is only one DoF for angular misalignment, and errors were small enough that grasping occurred reliably. As