The New Age of Space Logistics
The Defense Innovation Unit (DIU)’s in-space logistics initiative has awarded Blue Origin, Northrop Grumman, and Spacebilt to provide low-cost, responsive access to Geostationary (GEO) and other exotic orbits beyond Low Earth Orbit (LEO). DIU sought four classes of capability to achieve this:
- A light utility multi-orbit logistics vehicle (m-OLV) capable of hosting and transporting one or more mechanically-coupled payloads (~50 kg payload capacity)
- A heavy utility m-OLV: capable of transporting (hosting) one or more mechanically-coupled payloads or spacecraft (500+kg payload capacity)
- A fuel depot capable of storing and transferring sufficient chemical and/or electrical propellant to a m-OLV or self-propelled satellite to achieve a LEO-to-GEO transfer
- A rideshare approach to provide transport of detachable payloads or propellant to an m-OLV or an Outpost in GEO, cislunar or other exotic orbit
Blue Origin received a contract to demonstrate a heavy utility m-OLV system utilizing their ‘Blue Ring’ platform. The ‘Blue Ring’ platform serves as a multi-use, multi-mission way station providing services that span hosting, transportation, refueling, data relay, logistics, and more. Blue Origin was contracted to develop the Dark-Sky-1 (DS-1) and Blue Ring Pathfinder mission payloads, which will demonstrate core mission operation and flight system capabilities of the Blue Ring. DIU collaborated with the U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command’s Assured Access to Space Mission Manifest Office (MMO) to manifest the DS-1 mission to fly on a future National Security Space Launch (NSSL).
DS-1 has been designed to prove flight systems, including space-based processing capabilities, telemetry, tracking and command (TT&C) hardware, and ground-based radiometric tracking. DS-1 will be in an elliptical orbit of approximately 21,000 km apogee, 2,500 km perigee, at an inclination of 55 degrees. DS-1 will operate in the S-band (2025–2110 MHz) for space operations (Earth-to-space) and in the X-band (8025–8300 MHz) for space operations (space-to-Earth). As DS-1 proves flight validation, the Blue Ring mission vehicles will feature 12 docking ports for payloads up to 500 kg, a top deck for larger payloads, and offer significant maneuverability with 3,000 meters per second of Delta-V.
SpaceLogistics, Northrop Grumman’s in-space servicing subsidiary, is the second company and is providing a suite of in-space refueling technologies, including the Active Refueling Moule (ARM) and Passive Refueling Module (PRM), in concert with complementary efforts sponsored by Space Systems Command (SSC). SpaceLogistics is using the robotic arms for the MRV under a partnership with DARPA. The company has already secured three customers for its Mission Robotic Vehicle (MRV) services — two satellites from Intelsat and one from Optus. These clients will receive 350 kg Mission Extension Pods (MEPs), xenon electric propulsion packs that can add approximately six years of operational life to aging satellites. The refueling system includes elements to successfully dock and transfer fuel, as well as a refueling payload that handles fuel transfer. SpaceLogistics’s MRVs are targeting customers of 500 satellites in GEO, typically weighing 2,000 kg, as 10 or more of the satellites each year reach the end of life due to fuel.
Skycorp, now operating as Spacebilt, has secured a contract to further validate its In-Space Assembly and Manufacturing approach, advancing its m-OLV product for Department of Defense applications. Since receiving the award, Spacebilt has made significant strides toward developing a mass-manufacturable solution, executed risk-reduction missions to the International Space Station for flight hardware testing, and enhanced the maturity of its commercially available avionics hardware. The company is targeting a Q4 2026 launch for the first m-OLV STARcraft.
Great Power Competition for Space Logistics — People’s Liberation Army’s On-orbit satellite Logistics
Report from Kristin Burke from China Aerospace Studies Institute indicate the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is preparing its satellite operators to perform on-orbit satellite refueling, for peacetime and wartime space logistics.
A Chinese defense contractor has developed, for the last six years, a mission ready satellite refueler for geosynchronous Earth orbit (GEO). With more clarity on the PLA’s requirements for satellite logistics, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has approved new commercial players to enter the field to provide, not only technology, but also frameworks to shape international norms.
In 2018, a Beijing based Strategic Support Force (SSF) unit under the Space Systems Department (SSD) published a comprehensive article on the PLA’s requirements for a simulation tool to train military satellite operators in space-based refueling. By 2021, ShiJian-21 (SJ-21) moved a defunct navigation satellite, Beidou-2 G2, 3,000 km above GEO to the graveyard orbit. Marked 2021–094C by U.S. Space Force’s 18th Space Defense Squadron, SJ-21 added apogee kick motor (AKM), used in launches for a satellite to circularize and lower the inclination of its transfer orbit and enter geostationary orbit, to COMPASS G2. China Aerospace and Science Technology Corporation (CASC) has marked SJ-21 a successful experimental “space debris mitigation” mission.
SJ-21 is a class of On-Orbit Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing, or OSAM satellite, a broad class of satellites designed with capabilities to get close to and interact with other satellites. SJ-21’s recent maneuver raises questions and concerns about these types of satellites and their potential for military use, especially against an operational satellite the American military depends upon.
