Quote Originally Posted by sihnfahl View Post
It wasn't, but she did say it was 'launched' several weeks ago. So they had already placed it in orbit in anticipation for the mission (if not the specific ship).

As for the speed and trajectory - trajectory is easy enough to calculate (we do it all the time to get cargo ships to the ISS), and reference the laser for speed.
Okay, yes, so someone sent them there, in the right place, going the right speed and trajectory. That does mean that someone already had the means of launching them, and spent the energy/fuel to put those pods in motion. It does, to me, reinforce the semi truck analogy. Someone else has put a lot of energy into infrastructure, and the ship is there to provide the engine and the oversight to turn that into a cargo delivery.