APOGEE STAFF
New commercial technologies may someday help the U.S. Space Force refuel and service satellites in space. Space Systems Command (SSC), the service’s development, acquisition, launch and logistics command, is exploring how to leverage commercial assets to maneuver and service satellites in geostationary orbit (GEO), more than 35,000 kilometers above Earth.
The idea is in early stages and hasn’t received full funding, although members of Congress are warming to the idea. The SSC plans to develop an operational concept to access commercial technologies. On-orbit servicing would vastly improve maneuverability and extend satellites’ lifespans.
“There’s interest on the Hill already, so we’ll continue to push that effort,” Maj. Gen. Stephen Purdy, then executive officer for the Assured Access to Space (AATS) directorate, told C4ISRNET during the inaugural Space Mobility Conference in Orlando, Florida, hosted by the U.S. Space Force in 2023.
Although the Space Force continues to explore the potential for refueling and repairing satellites in orbit, it hasn’t yet created a purchasing program or operational unit to oversee the work. It took a step toward implementation in 2022 when it created the Space Access, Mobility and Logistics program and appointed Col. Meredith Beg as deputy director of operations for servicing and maneuver.
“We want to do on-orbit servicing and maneuver and refueling as a service,” Purdy said at the conference. “The urgency now is [to] figure out … what’s going to be there, figure out how to take advantage of it and then build that complicated structure internally.”
The structure would include, in addition to a new acquisition process, the ability to ensure satellites are equipped to receive fuel and capable of having parts replaced and added.
Beg, who attended a panel discussion at the conference, said the U.S. Space Force is working with NASA and the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit to strengthen industry partnerships.
He said in a February 2023 SSC news release that more than 50 companies are investing in servicing and other capabilities “from small-scale robotic arms with little pincers to grab things to big blow-up nets (for space debris).”