A robotic spacecraft just clamped on an active satellite in orbit

A Northrop Grumman robotic spacecraft has been stuck in a deep orbit on an old communications satellite, extending its lifespan by another five years. The Mission Extension Vehicle-2 (MEV-2) was the second successful capture of an object in the space of Northrop. The mission is part of the company’s efforts to set up a life extension service for dead, dying or stray satellites.

MEV-2 was launched in August last year from French Guiana in South America. It took six months to expand its orbit to meet Intelsat’s 17-year-old communications satellite in a geosynchronous orbit, more than 22,000 miles from Earth. That satellite was running out of fuel and was getting old; it operated much longer than its expected lifespan, while still providing broadband communications to three continents.

On March 12, the MEV-2 vessel began a month-long coupling process with the Intelsat satellite. Docking was completed and successfully confirmed today by Northrop Grumman at 13:34 ET. It ‘was just as exciting and successful as the docking of MEV-1,’ Joe Anderson, vice president of business development at SpaceLogistics, the Northrop subsidiary that launches MEVs, told a news conference on Monday. Intelsat’s IS-10-02 satellite can now export broadband communications to South America, Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

Northrop Grumman

MEV-1 was Northrop’s first docking success last year, a breakthrough in its goal to revive dead or dying satellites and save satellite operators the cost of replacing them completely. Extending the lifespan of satellites also helps to take down space debris – a growing problem in orbit as the world sends record numbers of satellites into space each year. It can take decades to orbit a satellite from a geosynchronous orbit.

The Northrop-Intelsat employment contract was a ‘win-win situation’, Jean-Luc Froeliger, vice president at Intelsat, told a news conference on Monday. The IS-10-02 satellite performs well, says Froeliger, but without Northrop’s MEV-2 they would have had to disrupt it because it had little fuel.

MEV-2 is currently clamped to the back of IS-10-02, which serves as life support for the satellite by providing renewed power and navigation control. The two will act as a ‘combined stack’ for the next five years. Thereafter, MEV-2 will disconnect from IS-10-02 and depart again with another client satellite.

IS-10-02 will die after MEV-2 leaves. A company spokesman said the satellite would retreat to a ‘cemetery orbit’, or the place in space where old satellites could turn into a space debris without getting in the way of younger satellites.

Northrop is also building an upgraded satellite control system, a Mission Robotic Vehicle (or MRV). The spacecraft will meet comparative satellites to install first aid chains called Mission Extension Pods, which are designed to provide propulsion and power. Each MRV can carry six pods. The debut launch of MRV is in early 2024, Anderson said.

Work Monday 19:10 ET on: This story has been updated to add Intelsat’s answer to a question about the fate of IS-10-02 after the departure of MEV-2. It will die.