Space Force: Looking to leverage Commercial Space Opportunities

ORLANDO DEFENSE NEWS— The U.S. Space Force is developing a plan for a satellite refueling and servicing capability that takes advantage of technology being developed by commercial space companies, according to the head of the service’s mobility enterprise.

The newest military service has been closely watching as companies test concepts for refueling and repairing satellites on orbit but hasn’t yet established acquisition programs or operational units to leverage that work. In August, the Space Force created a new role, deputy director of operations for servicing and maneuver, and appointed Col. Meredith Beg to lead the office. It held an industry day in September to learn more about the technology industry is developing.

These activities come as U.S. Space Command is seeing a need for its surveillance satellites to be more maneuverable, both to dodge debris and enemy spacecraft and to observe new areas in the space environment.

Maj. Gen. Stephen Purdy, program executive officer for assured access to space, told C4ISRNET this week that once the service has funding available, it wants to be ready to pay industry to provide those services for its own satellites.

That internal structure, he said, includes manpower, physical space and contracting and acquisition strategies. It also means ensuring that satellites are equipped with the hardware to receive fuel or have a part replaced or added.

The service has proposed funding for on-orbit servicing as part of the Pentagon’s budget process, but those attempts have never made it to the Space Force’s final funding request, Purdy said. Congress added $30 million for space mobility and logistics in the Fiscal 2023 Omnibus Appropriations Act, which he views as an indication that lawmakers are interested in the concept.

“We want to do on-orbit servicing and maneuver and refueling as a service,” Purdy said in a Feb. 21 interview at the inaugural Space Mobility Conference in Orlando, hosted by the Space Force. “The urgency now is [to] figure out . . . what’s going to be there, figure out how to take advantage of it and then build that complicated structure internally.”