that was exactly what I thought of reading this and what the hell is that drone shuttle doing anyway?
If I had to make a guess I'd say its main purpose is to check LEO satellites for neutron emission. Such a low orbit sat could cripple the US if it had a nuke on board designed to maximize EMP effects.
But you cannot mask the neutron emission from such a device without shielding it with a lot of hydrogen...i.e. water...lots of water.
The design would likely call for ejecting small steerable drones to approach a sat, do the test, leave a happy little package attached to the sat in case it's ever needed.
The whole business would not be that hard to engineer...so I'm guessing since it is doable we are doing it.
Reloading.