A Path Forward

APOGEE STAFF

The United States military and its allies are counting on dynamic space operations to fill a critical role as they keep tabs on strategic competitors, including the People’s Republic of China (PRC), but getting there will mean changes in how satellites are made and operated.

Working with aerospace industry partners, U.S. Space Command (USSPACECOM) and the Space Force are determined to see the transformation through, possibly by 2030. A number of companies have already stepped up with potential solutions.

USSPACECOM hosted 40 companies at an industry day on the issue in February 2023. Likewise, the concept of space mobility served as the main talking point, attracting industry leaders at the Space Mobility Conference in January 2024 in Orlando, Florida, presented by the U.S. Space Force and its Space Systems Command (SSC).

At the heart of the Pentagon’s space surveillance and reconnaissance (SAR) mission is the Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program (GSSAP), a constellation that monitors rival nations’ satellites from the geostationary belt 35,700 kilometers above the Earth. The program’s satellites, designed to last years, are equipped with enough fuel to ensure their longevity, but they weren’t made to stray often or far from their orbital paths. Even slight deviations in position need to be carefully accounted for to curtail fuel use.

These limitations are a key shortcoming given the potential for the PRC, Russia or another adversary to destroy U.S. satellites and blind U.S. intelligence, including GPS signals. In response, many officials, including now-retired Space Force Lt. Gen. John Shaw, former deputy commander of U.S. Space Command, are advocating “dynamic space operations,” which use satellites designed with maneuverability in mind. “The way we’ve been doing space operations since the dawn of the Space Age, we’ve been doing it wrong,” Shaw, one of the earliest proponents of maneuverable satellites, said during a July 2023 event in Virginia at the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.

Not all satellites need to be dynamic, he said, but maneuverability and the fuel to accomplish it must be central to any SAR platforms to effectively monitor adversaries’ spacecraft. “Our ability to swiftly respond to any kind of activity or threat or suspicious behavior that we see in the domain is limited today because of … how we fly our GSSAP sats,” he said.

“If we saw a satellite behaving suspiciously, but it was sufficiently far enough away from a GSAT (geosynchronous satellite) platform, it would take us awhile to get there given the limited fuel budget, and it may be determined we just can’t get there because it doesn’t fit within the lifetime profile of how you’re going to fly a satellite,” he added.

Officials say new offensively capable satellites from the PRC and Russia make the case for maneuverability. Among several recent developments: Russia’s “nesting doll” satellite. The spacecraft opens to reveal another satellite, which then opens to reveal a projectile that can target nearby spacecraft. In 2019, Russia shifted a nesting doll toward a U.S. satellite in an apparent test of the technology. Two years later, the PRC – a “pacing challenge” in space, officials say – tested a spacecraft with a robotic arm that can grab a satellite and pull it out of orbit.

“Our commercial systems are watching what the Chinese, in particular, are doing on orbit right now,” Kelly D. Hammett, director of the Space Rapid Capabilities Office, told Air & Space Forces magazine in January 2024. “They’re practicing tactics and techniques. They’re maneuvering, they’re showing how they would ingress on potential targets. They’re completing robotic maneuvers and rendezvous and [proximity] ops. How will we [respond] to address those threats and potentially fight the space war fight?”

Recent PRC surveillance activities are also concerning. During the Space Mobility Conference, Chief Master Sgt. Ron Lerch of the SSC’s intelligence directorate pointed to signs the PRC is ramping up its space-based spying. Among the developments: recently deployed surveillance spacecraft, including a Yaogan-41 optical satellite placed into geostationary orbit in December 2023 and three Yaogan-39 satellites deployed three months earlier.

The PRC maintains the satellites are for civilian purposes. U.S. officials disagree, noting that Yaogan spacecraft are typical of military-grade surveillance spacecraft and that the PRC has been advancing its satellite reconnaissance for years. “There doesn’t seem to be anything to suggest that Xi Jinping and the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] are slowing down,” Lerch told attendees.

Clayton Swope, deputy director of the Aerospace Security Project with the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), agrees. Writing for the center in January 2024, Swope noted that while PRC officials describe Yaogan-41 as a “civilian high-altitude optical remote-sensing satellite intended for crop yield estimation, environmental management, weather forecasting, and disaster prevention,” Western observers say it’s a military reconnaissance satellite. “The Yaogan program supports the space component of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA),” Swope said. “Unlike the United States, Europe and Russia, China has emphasized the development and expansion of a high-resolution GEO optical and SAR surveillance capability.”

 He added that while civilian applications for such capabilities exist, they can generally be served by satellites operating at lower altitudes, which are easier and cheaper to reach and offer higher resolution images than GEO alternatives. “Additionally, civilian applications such as agriculture, environmental monitoring and disaster preparedness do not typically necessitate the extra costs associated with persistent coverage, as these applications have no movement detection and tracking requirements. Take for instance, the equivalent civilian U.S. and European satellite programs, Landsat and Copernicus, respectively, which both operate satellites in LEO [low Earth orbit].”

The PRC has placed 146 Yaogan surveillance satellites into orbit since the start of the program in 2006. Translated into English, “Yaogan” means “remote sensing.” Yaogan-41 is the fourth Chinese optical surveillance satellite in geosynchronous orbit – a position that lets it match the planet’s rotation to conserve fuel, as opposed to LEO, which requires greater fuel use to remain in orbit.

“Experts assume that Yaogan-41 is also more capable than its three GEO peers, whose highest optical resolution is believed to be around 15 meters,” Swope said. “Paired with its existing GEO optical surveillance capabilities, Yaogan-41’s increased resolution means that China will be able to more easily identify and track U.S. and allied naval forces in the Indian and Pacific oceans than it ever could before,” he said.

“This increased resolution may give China the ability to identify and track even smaller objects, not just ships, but airborne assets like fighter aircraft and bombers as well. … While clouds will still obscure optical space-based systems and AI algorithms make mistakes, relentless advances in Chinese surveillance capabilities could soon produce an Indo-Pacific region where there is no place to hide.” Showing no signs of slowing down, the PRC launched Yaogan 42-01 and 42-02 in April 2024. The PRC then launched a second group of Yaogan-43 satellites in September 2024, adding to a group of nine already on orbit.

Multiple high-ranking officials have called for maneuverable satellites to counter the PRC as well as other emerging threats from Iran, Russia and terrorist groups. The Space Force is evaluating several options, including satellites outfitted with fueling ports to access commercial fuel depots – or orbiting “gas stations.” Having access to fuel could solve the maneuverability-versus-longevity dilemma and enable a close-up view of suspicious satellites. Several companies are advancing refueling-focused technologies. Among them:

• In September 2023, SSC – the Space Force’s development, acquisition, launch and logistics field command – awarded $25 million to Astroscale U.S. to design a satellite-refueling spacecraft, “delivering fuel to client vehicles and permitting them to remain on-station and on-mission,” an SSC announcement read. The agreement calls for Astroscale to deliver a prototype by 2026.
• In another deal, ClearSpace and Orbit Fab announced in January 2024 a partnership to combine their respective technologies to create an on-orbit satellite refueling platform. Under the deal, ClearSpace shuttles would essentially “gas up” at Orbit Fab fuel depots and then deliver propellant to client satellites. Orbit Fab said that it hopes to have its depots in space within the next few years.
• Separately, Orbit Fab in March 2024 agreed to supply the Space Force with eight interfacing devices called the Rapidly Attachable Fluid Transfer Interface (RAFTI), which will be installed on satellites to let them receive propellant in orbit or on the ground before a launch. In addition, Orbit Fab has partnered with Astroscale to enable its propellant-delivery shuttles to dock at Orbit Fab depots. Orbit Fab’s interface technology is supported by Lockheed Martin Ventures and other investors.
• Also in early 2024, Northrop Grumman announced it had been awarded a contract by SSC to develop a refueling tanker called the Geosynchronous Auxiliary Support Tanker (GAS-T). The contract amount was not disclosed. In the same announcement, Northrop said its refueling nozzle, the Passive Refueling Module (PRM), had been selected as an “interface standard for use across Space Systems Command satellites.”

The SSC noted that the PRM’s designation does not represent an exclusive contract with Northrop and that the agency continues to work with other companies to develop interface and fueling technologies, among them Orbit Fab.

In addition to PRM and RAFTI, the Space Force is assessing technologies by Lockheed Martin, Blue Origin and other companies.

Blue Origin, which builds rocket engines, including for United Launch Alliance (ULA)’s Vulcan rocket, is developing an orbital transfer vehicle called Blue Ring. In October 2023, Blue Origin announced it was developing technology to provide in-space logistics and delivery to commercial and government clients from medium Earth orbit to “the cislunar region and beyond.” Its spacecraft would host payloads of more than 3,000 kilograms and provide “end-to-end services that span hosting, transportation, refueling, data relay, and logistics, including an ‘in-space’ cloud computing capability.”

“Blue Ring addresses two of the most difficult challenges in spaceflight today: growing space infrastructure and increasing mobility on-orbit,” said Paul Ebertz, senior vice president of Blue Origin In-Space Systems.

Yet another technology with potential to help fuel-deprived satellites are “jet packs,” or support vehicles that attach to satellites to enable their mission to continue.

Space Force officials say it’s too early to say which on-orbit refueling technology holds the most promise, or even whether refueling depots and shuttles should be operated by the military or the commercial sector. During the Space Mobility Conference, Brig. Gen. Kristin Panzenhagen, director of Assured Access to Space, said the Space Force is poring over several such questions before choosing a path forward.

“From a service perspective, there are questions on how it will be used, what are the concepts of operations, what are the tactics, techniques and procedures to include in training. How do we train for something like this?” she said.

Four months later, Lt. Gen. Philip Garrant, head of SSC, further clarified the Space Force’s aims, saying refueling options would likely be a required feature of “next generation” satellites designed for certain missions, such as SAR. “In the longer term, the constellations will incorporate that into their capabilities,” Garrant said during a webinar at the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. But more study was deemed necessary before any commitment to develop refueling systems, in part because they open the door to a host of issues. Among them, getting the refueling platforms into space. Plus, other options exist that may not require years of study, such as jetpacks. In May 2024, the SSC announced a $37 million contract with Starfish Space “to build, launch, and operate an Otter satellite vehicle for a first-of-its-kind docking mission designed to provide two years of augmented maneuver for National Security Space assets.”

Space Force Col. Joyce Bulson, director of SSC’s Servicing, Mobility and Logistics Office, said in the SSC statement that Otter would function as a new attached engine. Once docked with a target satellite, the technology could serve as an alternative to refueling or help with end-of-life disposal by moving satellites into lower orbit.

“This project is another step forward in delivering what our warfighters require in sustained space maneuver,” Bulson said.