Boeing [BA] has completed a 12-hour test mission for its first micro-satellite, called XSS-10, to show that an autonomous satellite can operate near other orbiting space objects without colliding, company officials said.

The XSS-10 was one of two payloads launched on Jan. 29 with a Delta II rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. The micro-satellite project began in 1997 when Boeing was awarded the contract under a project funded by the Air Force Research Laboratory.

Boeing’s Space and Intelligence Systems and Rocketdyne Propulsion and Power divisions designed, developed and built the 31-kilogram (68-pound) spacecraft that is the first in the XSS series of experimental satellite systems. The XSS-10 features an on-board computer processor, avionics, propulsion and high-resolution cameras that facilitate close inspection of other objects in space. The micro-satellite traveled within 100 meters (328 feet) of the second-stage booster of the Delta II rocket to take photographs and transmit the images back to ground from a low-Earth orbital position 800 kilometers (497 miles) above the equator.