Innovations & technology

DARPA In Talks With New Robot Sat Servicing Company

DARPA will announce a new partner to replace Maxar Technologies for its robotic servicing spacecraft program “sometime before the end of the year,” says program manager Joe Parrish. DARPA is looking at a launch date in 2022.“We’ve every good reason for optimism,” he told the 2019 Global Satellite Servicing Forum on Tuesday.

The DARPA effort, called Robotic Servicing of Geosynchronous Satellites (RSGS), is designed to create operational capability for “dexterous” robotic repair in space to increase the resiliency of the US satellite architecture. RSGS will be “a first concrete step toward a transformed space architecture with revolutionary capabilities,” he said.

The project got off to a bad start. DARPA awarded the original RSGS contract to Space Systems Loral (now part of Maxar Technologies) in February 2017, at which point Orbital ATK (now part of Northrop Grumman) sued on grounds that DARPA was violating US government policy by competing directly with its own planned servicing vehicle, called the Mission Extension Vehicle (MEV). Orbital’s lawsuit was thrown out in July 2017.