ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 16 -- United States Patent no. 12,358,655, issued on July 15, was assigned to Northrop Grumman Systems Corp. (Falls Church, Va.).

"Method of servicing a spacecraft using a pod secured by another spacecraft" was invented by James Garret Nicholson (Broadlands, Va.), Daniel Carl Treachler (Leesburg, Va.), Oliver Benjamin Ortiz (Beltsville, Md.), James Dulin Reavill (Irving, Texas), Benjamin Michael Hekman (Percellville, Va.), Robert Bryan Sullivan (Chantilly, Va.), Carlos Guillermo Niederstrasser (Reston, Va.), Mark Lieberbaum (Arlington, Va.), Michael Joseph Glogowski (Leesburg, Va.), William A. Llorens (Herndon, Va.) and Kenneth Siu-Kin Chow (Great Falls, Va.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & ...