Satellite refuelling

Satellite refuelling is the operation of replenishing on board propellants and other consumables in satellites in orbit, e.g. in geostationary orbit around Earth.

This could be for storable propellants, and later for cryogenic propellants.

Examples

• Space Infrastructure Servicing by Canadian MDA
• Orbital Express — a 2007 U.S. government-sponsored mission to test in-space satellite servicing with two vehicles designed from the start for on-orbit refueling and subsystem replacement.
• Robotic Refueling Mission, a series of NASA projects, including cryogenics transfer tests at ISS

Contracts

• Jan 2022: Astroscale contracted to use Orbit Fab in-orbit propellant depots.^[1]

Standards

• Rapidly Attachable Fluid Transfer Interface, for non-cryogenic fluids and gases
• ASSIST, for docking, ground tested by a consortium of European companies.^[2]

Alternatives

Rather than refuel, another craft could attach itself to the customer satellite and provide any desired propulsion. E.g.:

• Mission Extension Vehicle, of Northrop Grumman, MEV-1 in operation in 2021.

References

1. Orbit Fab secures deal to refuel Astroscale’s satellite-servicing robots
2. Docking mechanism could lead to refuelling satellites still in orbit