MOUNTAIN VIEW, California – Satellite-servicing businesses are finally getting off the ground thanks in part to technological innovation and the example set by prime contractor Northrop Grumman.
“There is no shame in saying that we are riding on Northrop’s coattails,” said Luis Vidal, Starfish Space commercial geostationary business development director. “Northrop broke the suspension of disbelief that servicing can be done.”
Now, the pressing questions are, “How effectively can you do it and how valuable is it?” Vidal said Oct. 28 at the Satellite Innovation conference here.
Cost Concerns
Orbital Express, a two-satellite DARPA mission, demonstrated autonomous propellant transfer and battery replacement in 2007. Why didn’t industry quickly pick up the mantle?
“For a long time, there was a mismatch between the cost of providing these services and what the market was willing to pay,” Vidal said.
Each NASA mission to repair and upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope from 1993 to 2009 cost of hundreds of millions of dollars. At that price point, a commercial firm with a geostationary communications satellite nearing the end of its life would buy a new one instead of seeking to extend the life of an old one.
Autonomous Guidance
Costs are coming down, though, as companies develop satellite servicing vehicles equipped with low-cost robotics, autonomous navigation technology and sophisticated guidance and control software.
And satellite-servicing firms are attracting investment thanks in part to the business case shown by Northrop Grumman subsidiary SpaceLogistics. Since 2020, SpaceLogistics Mission Extension Vehicles have prolonged the operational lives of two Intelsat geostationary communications satellites. A more advanced capability, the multi-armed Mission Robotic Vehicle, will launch in early 2026, said senior Northrop Grumman fellow Andrew Kwas.
Demand for satellite servicing is also boosting sales for Tokyo-based Astroscale. Government agencies around the world have awarded contracts to Astroscale international subsidiaries to inspect satellites, perform rendezvous and docking, remove orbital debris and refuel spacecraft.
“We have missions in build around the world towards on-orbit servicing and, interestingly, across all of the sectors of the industry,” said Clare Martin, Astroscale U.S. executive vice president.
New Entrants
Starfish Space raised $29 million in 2024 to develop autonomous vehicles for life-extension in geostationary orbit and removing debris from low-Earth orbit. Starfish is developing “the lowest cost satellite-servicing architecture that we possibly can, so we can open up the aperture to a larger quantity of clients,” Vidal said.
Sidus Space, meanwhile, is talking with customers about building multi-sensor, multi-mission refueling satellites.
“Obviously, that’s a critical and difficult problem to solve,” said Patrick Butler, Sidus senior vice president mission operations and product line management. “But it also is going to be short durations of conducting the rendezvous and proximity operations and refueling.”
The refueling satellites will be equipped with multiple sensors “to broaden the scope, to not be a single-mission focus,” which will lower servicing costs, Butler said.
