The U.S. Area Pressure has ordered a first-of-its-kind satellite tv for pc docking mission as a way to give an on-orbit spacecraft a further two years of propulsion and maneuverability.
Area Programs Command (SSC), a company inside the U.S. Area Pressure tasked with buying and deploying new army house applied sciences, awarded a $37.5 million contract to Seattle-based firm Starfish Area to construct and launch one of many agency’s “Otter” spacecraft.
Otter’s mission is to carry out “autonomous rendezvous, proximity operations and docking (RPOD), suitable with a variety of shoppers, together with people who have been by no means designed or configured for docking,” in line with an SSC statement. Which means the spacecraft will be capable to meet up with, and connect itself to, a variety of satellites, offering extra propulsion to spacecraft even when they weren’t designed with such a functionality in thoughts.
Associated: US Area Pressure desires satellite tv for pc ‘jetpacks’ to maintain previous spacecraft alive in orbit
Starfish Area beforehand demonstrated the applied sciences behind its Otter spacecraft with its “Otter Pup” mission, which launched aboard SpaceX’s Transporter-8 mission in June 2023.
Otter Pup was capable of considerably efficiently rendezvous with one other spacecraft, coming inside 0.6 miles (1 kilometer) of a satellite tv for pc in Could 2024. Otter Pup suffered a propulsion anomaly early in its mission, nonetheless, rendering it unable to maneuver nearer to its goal.
However Starfish Area was capable of salvage the mission by offering information to a different satellite tv for pc operator, D-Orbit, that allowed D-Orbit to maneuver its spacecraft near Otter Pup. Starfish Area was then capable of seize photographs of the opposite satellite tv for pc, marking a “profitable rendezvous,” in line with an organization statement.
Regardless of the challenges it skilled, the Otter Pup mission seems to have been sufficient to persuade Area Programs Command to maneuver ahead with this new contract with Starfish Area. The command has been on the lookout for applied sciences that may present what the Area Pressure refers to as “augmented maneuver.”
“This challenge is one other step ahead in delivering what our warfighters require in sustained house maneuver,” stated SSC’s Col. Joyce Bulson within the command’s assertion. “There’s a variety of purposes for Starfish Area’s Otter along with augmented maneuver, reminiscent of station-keeping or life extension, orbital switch, and finally orbital disposal which assures entry to key orbital slots whereas demonstrating accountable norms in house.”
Earlier this yr, Area Pressure leaders said the necessity for this sort of extra maneuverability. Brig. Gen. Kristin Panzenhagen, Commander of Area Launch Delta 45 on Florida’s Area Coast, advised reporters on the Area Mobility Convention in Orlando in late January that Area Pressure is seeking to purchase a “backpack or a jetpack that would go join up with an present satellite tv for pc to offer it extra propulsion,” according to Breaking Defense.
Including extra capabilities to satellites already in orbit has been a spotlight of U.S. army analysis and growth for years. In January 2024, SSC awarded a contract to Northrop Grumman to launch a Passive Refueling Module, a spacecraft that may dock with and switch gas to present satellites.
And Japan-based firm Astroscale was beforehand awarded a $25.5 million contract by Area Pressure to develop a satellite-refueling spacecraft that could possibly be launched in 2026.
Starfish Area plans to launch one other Otter spacecraft someday subsequent yr.
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