October 21, 2022
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (Kratos/Constellations) — In-space service providers contacted by Constellations responded to the recent comments from the head U.S. Department of Defense’s rapid space acquisition agency who signaled interest in “space tug” solutions to deorbit satellites.
Speaking at the 2022 MilSat Symposium earlier this month, Space Development Agency (SDA) Director Derek Tournear said the agency was seeking an affordable solution to deal with spacecraft that have reached end of life.
“I am very interested and would encourage folks to develop that technology for the space tug, deorbit-as-a-service kind of technology, because that enables the satellites’ costs themselves to go down,” Tournear said.
He explained how the service could open opportunities for satellite operators to develop experimental propulsion systems and reduce the time and cost of building and testing redundancy in onboard propulsion “without the fear that if they fail, I’m stuck up there for a thousand years.”
The comments came in response to a question about SDA’s planned compliance with the recent U.S. FCC ruling requiring satellites in low-Earth orbit to deorbit within five years of completing their mission. SDA plans to deploy a mesh network of 300-500 optically interlinked satellites in two-year increments to form the communications backbone of the U.S. Department of Defense’s Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2) architecture.
Several companies that have deployed or are developing orbital transport vehicles (OTVs) or orbital service vehicles explained that the capabilities Tournear described exist today.
“Affordable OTVs are already available,” said Curt Blake, CEO of Spaceflight, a launch and orbital service provider based in Washington State.
Read the full article: https://www.kratosdefense.com/constellations/articles/orbital-service-providers-respond-to-call-for-space-tugs-for-deorbiting
