Northrop Grumman Launches Robotic Servicer Toward Geosynchronous Orbit

Northrop Grumman’s Mission Robotic Vehicle, carrying a NASA-supported robotic servicing payload, launched Tuesday and is now heading for geosynchronous orbit in a step toward more hands-on commercial satellite servicing far above Earth.

The spacecraft lifted off July 21 at about 5:15 p.m. local time from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 from Space Launch Complex 40. On board were the Robotic Servicing of Geosynchronous Satellites, or RSGS, payload and three Mission Extension Pods.

The mission matters because it is intended to push on-orbit servicing beyond the docking-only approach Northrop has already demonstrated in geosynchronous orbit, the region used by many valuable communications satellites. Instead of only attaching to aging spacecraft and taking over some propulsion duties, the new vehicle is designed to inspect satellites up close, help resolve anomalies, relocate them and potentially perform hardware upgrades and other robotic servicing work.

That makes it a broader test of whether servicing in geosynchronous orbit can become a practical commercial and government capability rather than a one-off demonstration. James Shoemaker, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s RSGS program manager, said in May that “The RSGS program is a government-private partnership for the next wave of satellite servicing.”

The partnership behind the mission spans several organizations. The robotic RSGS payload was designed and developed at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory with DARPA funding. SpaceLogistics, a Northrop Grumman company, provided the Mission Robotic Vehicle spacecraft bus, integrated the overall mission and will operate the spacecraft on orbit. NASA is a supporting partner that provided technical support, which the agency noted in a July 22 article describing the launch as taking place “with NASA support.” NASA is not the prime operator or primary funder of the mission.

Once in geosynchronous orbit, the robotic system is intended to carry out proximity operations — carefully maneuvering close to other spacecraft — and then perform servicing tasks that can include inspection, anomaly resolution, hardware upgrades and satellite relocation.

The vehicle also carries three Mission Extension Pods, or MEPs. Northrop has described the pods as propulsion “jet packs” that the MRV can capture and install onto client satellites, adding propulsion capability and extending their operating lives by several years.

The mission will not begin those demonstrations immediately. The spacecraft uses solar-electric propulsion to raise its orbit, a fuel-efficient method that trades speed for efficiency. That means reaching operational orbit and beginning demonstrations will take months and potentially up to about a year, rather than a matter of days.

The launch marks an important next step from Northrop’s earlier Mission Extension Vehicle missions. MEV-1 docked with Intelsat 901 in 2020, and MEV-2 docked with Intelsat 10-02 in 2021, showing that satellites in geosynchronous orbit could be docked with and kept in service longer. But those missions centered on docking and station-keeping. MRV, paired with the RSGS robotics package, is meant to add dexterous robotic manipulation and a wider menu of servicing options.

That distinction is central to the case for the mission. Geosynchronous orbit is home to satellites that are expensive to replace and difficult to reach, so the ability to inspect them, move them, upgrade them or extend their useful life could change how operators manage aging spacecraft.

Bernard Kelm, acting director of NRL’s Naval Center for Space Technology, said Tuesday that “RSGS is designed to permanently change this ‘launch-and-abandon’ archetype.”