on-orbit satellite servicing

Although servicing of satellites has been theoretically considered since the early days of spaceflight, little was done.

The term is usually thought of as meaning autonomous or telerobotic servicing of a satellite by robotic spacecraft, but can also mean servicing that occurs by human astronauts, such as repeated and regular servicing of the International Space Station (ISS) starting in 1998.

The first orbital repair was made by James van Hoften and George Nelson in 1984 during their mission to Solar Maximum Mission (SMM) satellite.

One famous sequence of servicing a satellite by astronauts was the several flights of the Space Shuttle to the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) in 1993–2009 for manual (human-assisted) subsystem-replacement to repair or extend the life of the HST. The five Hubble Space Telescope servicing missions were STS-61 in 1993, STS-82 in 1997, STS-103 in 1999, STS-109 in 2002, and STS-125 in 2009.

Orbital Express was a space mission managed by the United States Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and a team led by engineers at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). The Orbital Express program was aimed at developing "a safe and cost-effective approach to autonomously service satellites in orbit".{{cite web|url=http://www.boeing.com/ids/advanced_systems/orbital.html |title=Boeing Integrated Defense Systems – Orbital Express|publisher=Boeing|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060512144505/http://www.boeing.com/ids/advanced_systems/orbital.html|archive-date=2006-05-12}} The system consisted of two spacecraft: the ASTRO servicing satellite, and a prototype modular next-generation serviceable satellite; NEXTSat. The mission launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on 8 March 2007, aboard an Atlas V expendable launch vehicle.{{cite web|url=https://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2007/05mar_nohands.htm|title=Look Ma! No (Human) Hands!|date=March 5, 2007|publisher=NASA|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090827034330/http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2007/05mar_nohands.htm|archive-date=August 27, 2009}} {{PD-notice}}{{cite web

|url=https://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2007/09mar_orbitalexpress.htm|title=Orbital Express Launches Successfully|publisher=NASA|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100114024025/http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2007/09mar_orbitalexpress.htm|archive-date=2010-01-14}} {{PD-notice}} The launch was part of the United States Space Force Space Test Program STP-1 mission.{{cite web|url=http://www.darpa.mil/tto/programs/oe.htm|title=Orbital Express Space Operations Architecture|publisher=DARPA|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070313165744/http://www.darpa.mil/tto/programs/oe.htm|archive-date=2007-03-13}} {{PD-notice}}

A collaboration was initiated in 2012 by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency — called DARPA Phoenix — with the aim to recycle retired satellite parts into new on-orbit satellite assets, principally focused on satellites in the geosynchronous Clarke Belt. The project was initiated in July 2012 with plans for system launches no earlier than 2016.{{cite news |last=Ferster|first=Warren|title=DARPA Cancels Formation-flying Satellite Demo|url=http://www.spacenews.com/article/military-space/35375darpa-cancels-formation-flying-satellite-demo|archive-url=https://archive.today/20131101223116/http://www.spacenews.com/article/military-space/35375darpa-cancels-formation-flying-satellite-demo|url-status=dead|archive-date=1 November 2013|access-date=2013-11-01 |newspaper=SpaceNews|date=2013-05-17}}{{cite magazine|url=http://www.aviationweek.com/Article.aspx?id=/article-xml/awx_01_23_2013_p0-540178.xml|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130501165324/http://www.aviationweek.com/Article.aspx?id=%2Farticle-xml%2Fawx_01_23_2013_p0-540178.xml|url-status=dead|archive-date=2013-05-01|title=Darpa Touts Progress On GEO Satellite Recycling Concept|magazine=Aviation Week|date=2013-01-23|author=Graham Warwick|access-date=2013-01-25}} At the time, small satellite tests in low Earth orbit were projected to occur as early as 2015.{{cite news|last=Gruss|first=Mike|title=DARPA Space Budget Increase Includes M for Spaceplane|url=http://www.spacenews.com/article/military-space/39938darpa-space-budget-increase-includes-27m-for-spaceplane|archive-url=https://archive.today/20140324034149/http://www.spacenews.com/article/military-space/39938darpa-space-budget-increase-includes-27m-for-spaceplane|url-status=dead|archive-date=24 March 2014|access-date=2014-03-24|publisher=SpaceNews|date=2014-03-21}} Although a number of system elements were designed and tested, the U.S. government-funded development program was not continued after 2015.

Another collaboration was initiated in 2017 by DARPA between certain researchers and U.S. government contractors to develop rules for the future commercial use of in-orbit satellite repair.{{cite news|last=Erwin|first=Sandra|date=25 November 2017|title=On-Orbit Satellite Servicing: The Next Big Thing in Space?|url=https://www.space.com/38850-on-orbit-satellite-servicing-next-big-thing.html|access-date=2020-08-04|publisher=SPACE.com }} Although commercial launches to space are regulated by government agencies, satellite servicing protocols have not yet been developed.

In 2016, INTESLAT contracted for Orbital-ATK/Northrop Grumman company to use the MEV-1 to service the Intelsat 901 satellite. The servicing mission was accomplished in 2019 allowing INTELSAT 901's operational lifetime to be extended by five years.{{cite news|title=INTELSAT Taps Orbital ATK's MEV-1 to Extend Life of Orbiting Satellites|url=https://www.spaceflightinsider.com/organizations/orbital-sciences-corp/intelsat-taps-orbital-atks-mev-1-extend-life-orbiting-satellites/|date=April 13, 2016|publisher=Spaceflight Insider|access-date=November 6, 2022}}{{cite web|title=Investment Perspectives: On-Orbit Satellite Servicing Markets Continue to Evolve |url=https://www.issnationallab.org/blog/investment-perspectives-on-orbit-satellite-servicing-markets-continue-to-evolve/|access-date=2020-08-04|website=issnationallab.org}} Following the success of that mission, Northrop Grumman was contracted by the U.S. government to study the possibility of servicing U.S. national security satellites.{{cite web|last=Strout|first=Nathan|date=2020-02-27|title=Is this the beginning of on orbit satellite servicing?|url=https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefield-tech/space/2020/02/26/is-this-the-beginning-of-on-orbit-satellite-servicing/|access-date=2020-08-04|publisher=C4ISRNET}}

In 2022, Lockheed-Martin proposed the Mission Augmentation Port (MAP) interface standard for on-orbit satellite servicing and mission augmentation.[https://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Lockheed_Martin_releases_open_source_interface_standard_for_on_orbit_docking_999.html Lockheed Martin releases open-source interface standard for on-orbit docking]

{{Portal|Spaceflight}}

• ETS-VII
• DART (satellite)
• Mission Extension Vehicle
• Orbital Express
• Robotic Refueling Mission
• Satellite refuelling
• Space Infrastructure Servicing
• SPADEX
• Robotic Servicing of Geosynchronous Satellites program
• OSAM-1

{{Reflist}}

• [https://nexis.gsfc.nasa.gov/osam-1.html On-orbit Servicing Assembly and Manufacturing 1 Mission (OSAM-1) at NASA]
• [https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/tdm/osam-2.html OSAM-2 at NASA]
• [https://nexis.gsfc.nasa.gov/osam/index.html OSAM Technologies at NASA]
• [https://nexis.gsfc.nasa.gov/RRM3.html Robotic Refueling Missions 1-3 (RRM) at NASA]
• [https://www.northropgrumman.com/space/space-logistics-services/ Northrop Grumman SpaceLogistics Mission Extension Vehicle-1 (MEV-1)]