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This marks the first time a commercial satellite has been "repaired" by another satellite. It wasn't an actual repair; just a docking attachment to provide maneuvering. But still, it's a start.
Super cool! Thanks for pointing this out. The MEV series sound like they'll be a commercial success. GNC is usually the fault point of communications satellites, rather than the payload or power systems. Northrop Grumman had a good idea building a robust GNC-only satellite that can act as a mission extender.
What will be really exciting is when/if the MEV's (or future iterations) can capture failed and/or spinning satellites and deep-six them into super-synchronous orbits. The GEO belt could do with some major housecleaning. I think there's a whole host of business opportunities here. Just gotta get someone to pay for some of this necessary maintenance of our near-Earth space-lanes. Maybe they can contract with the US Space Force.
Not to let my nerd side show too much, but there's an Anime called "Planetes" with similar concepts. They use humans as space junk collectors, but it's the same idea. Much safer and cheaper to do it with robotic satellites.
Of course, presently, it wouldn't really be safe or practical to send humans above the radiation belts just to manipulate old commsats, anyway.
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