Brenda Marie Rivers
Northrop Grumman’s SpaceLogistics subsidiary plans to launch a space vehicle designed to service satellites in orbit and potentially extend their lifespan, C4ISRNET reported Tuesday.
SpaceLogistics told attendees at this year’s Global Satellite Servicing Forum in Washington, D.C. that it intends to establish a satellite maintenance service that deploys the company’s Mission Extension Vehicle to dock satellites and perform work on their propulsion systems.
As part of its first launch, MEV-1 will meet with Intelsat’s 901 satellite in geostationary orbit throughout a three-month period and remain docked for five years to extend 901’s service life before the latter is eventually disposed.
According to Joe Anderson, vice president of operations and business development at SpaceLogistics, the company’s MEVs are interoperable with around 80 percent of currently deployed satellites including those from the Department of Defense.
Previously, the Space Enterprise Consortium selected SpaceLogistics to conduct research into servicing government satellites in space as part of a four-phase contract with the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center.
SpaceLogistics is slated to launch its satellite servicing technologies by late 2023 or 2024.
