Astroscale leaps into the satellite servicing fray
Nathan Strout
26 minutes ago
Is this the beginning of on orbit satellite servicing?
SpaceLogistics, a Northrop Grumman subsidiary, announced that their Mission Extension Vehicle-1 has docked with a commercial communications satellite, marking the start of a mission to extend the life of the satellite.
Nathan Strout
Astroscale, a global company headquartered in Japan, is best known for its efforts to remove space debris from orbit. The company expects to demonstrate its end of life service later this year, which will see an Astroscale space vehicle capture debris and deorbit it.
But with this purchase the company is scaling up its understanding of—and ambitions for—on orbit servicing.
“Really, we’ve started thinking about the debris remediation part of the market as a subset of on orbit services. It’s one thing you can do once you have a satellite up there that can rendezvous and dock with other satellites,” said Ron Lopez, President and Managing Director of Astroscale U.S. “We’re bringing all of those resources to bear to move into the GEO life extension business, to compliment what we’re doing in LEO on the debris and the situational space awareness side.”
Astroscale claims that with it’s debris removal efforts in LEO and its new GEO life extension effort, it’s now the only company that is solely dedicated to on orbit servicing across all orbital regimes. Eventually, Astroscale could add satellite refueling, repairing, upgrading, towing, salvage, situational space awareness and on orbit manufacturing to its future portfolio for logistics services.
But for now, the company is focused on providing life extension services—supplanting the exhausted fuel reserves of a client satellite with the propulsion provided by an attached space vehicle. ESS’ Space Drone platform will be used as the base for Astroscale’s first life extension vehicle.
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Lopez couldn’t give a timeline for when the first life extension mission would begin, stating that the timeline would be driven by customer demand. He added that he is in talks with a couple potential customers.
Astroscale will face some stiff competition as it enters the still nascent satellite servicing market. SpaceLogistics, a Northrop Grumman subsidiary, successfully docked its own space vehicle with a commercial GEO satellite in February, marking the beginning of the first ever commercial satellite life extension mission.
SpaceLogistics has also made important inroads with the Department of Defense. The company is working with DoD on studies on the feasibility of providing life extension services to four military satellites. And shortly after their successful docking with a commercial satellite in February, the company announced that it would be partnering with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to field a pair of government-built robotic arms for on orbit repairs.
Astroscale also sees DoD as an important customer for any GEO servicing efforts.
“U.S. strategy right now is very heavily focused on space, specifically on building resiliency and achieving greater operational flexibility, which this kind of capability will allow U.S. government customers to do,” said Lopez.
Still, the company does not have any DoD contracts to date, though Lopez said the company is in communication with key U.S. government stakeholders and has presented its solution to DoD representatives. Lopez also sees strong commercial interest in on orbit servicing, which underpins their business plan and would allow the government to leverage commercial prices.
Ultimately, Lopez believes Astroscale is well positioned to compete.
“Even though we’re small, we’re nimble and we have a real, meaningful global footprint,” said Lopez.
https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefiel...cale-leaps-into-the-satellite-servicing-fray/
Nathan Strout
26 minutes ago
Is this the beginning of on orbit satellite servicing?
SpaceLogistics, a Northrop Grumman subsidiary, announced that their Mission Extension Vehicle-1 has docked with a commercial communications satellite, marking the start of a mission to extend the life of the satellite.
Nathan Strout
Astroscale, a global company headquartered in Japan, is best known for its efforts to remove space debris from orbit. The company expects to demonstrate its end of life service later this year, which will see an Astroscale space vehicle capture debris and deorbit it.
But with this purchase the company is scaling up its understanding of—and ambitions for—on orbit servicing.
“Really, we’ve started thinking about the debris remediation part of the market as a subset of on orbit services. It’s one thing you can do once you have a satellite up there that can rendezvous and dock with other satellites,” said Ron Lopez, President and Managing Director of Astroscale U.S. “We’re bringing all of those resources to bear to move into the GEO life extension business, to compliment what we’re doing in LEO on the debris and the situational space awareness side.”
Astroscale claims that with it’s debris removal efforts in LEO and its new GEO life extension effort, it’s now the only company that is solely dedicated to on orbit servicing across all orbital regimes. Eventually, Astroscale could add satellite refueling, repairing, upgrading, towing, salvage, situational space awareness and on orbit manufacturing to its future portfolio for logistics services.
But for now, the company is focused on providing life extension services—supplanting the exhausted fuel reserves of a client satellite with the propulsion provided by an attached space vehicle. ESS’ Space Drone platform will be used as the base for Astroscale’s first life extension vehicle.
Know all the coolest acronyms
Sign up for the C4ISRNET newsletter about future battlefield technologies.
Lopez couldn’t give a timeline for when the first life extension mission would begin, stating that the timeline would be driven by customer demand. He added that he is in talks with a couple potential customers.
Astroscale will face some stiff competition as it enters the still nascent satellite servicing market. SpaceLogistics, a Northrop Grumman subsidiary, successfully docked its own space vehicle with a commercial GEO satellite in February, marking the beginning of the first ever commercial satellite life extension mission.
SpaceLogistics has also made important inroads with the Department of Defense. The company is working with DoD on studies on the feasibility of providing life extension services to four military satellites. And shortly after their successful docking with a commercial satellite in February, the company announced that it would be partnering with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to field a pair of government-built robotic arms for on orbit repairs.
Astroscale also sees DoD as an important customer for any GEO servicing efforts.
“U.S. strategy right now is very heavily focused on space, specifically on building resiliency and achieving greater operational flexibility, which this kind of capability will allow U.S. government customers to do,” said Lopez.
Still, the company does not have any DoD contracts to date, though Lopez said the company is in communication with key U.S. government stakeholders and has presented its solution to DoD representatives. Lopez also sees strong commercial interest in on orbit servicing, which underpins their business plan and would allow the government to leverage commercial prices.
Ultimately, Lopez believes Astroscale is well positioned to compete.
“Even though we’re small, we’re nimble and we have a real, meaningful global footprint,” said Lopez.
https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefiel...cale-leaps-into-the-satellite-servicing-fray/
