INDUSTRY NEWS Northrop Grumman and NASA Partnership Gives Satellites a New Lease on Life — A first-of-its-kind spacecraft to extend another satellite’s life will be launched into orbit soon thanks in part to a partnership between Northrop Grumman and NASA. The spacecraft is called the Mission Extension Vehicle (MEV); its primary purpose is to extend the life of commercial satellites that are currently in a geostationary orbit around Earth. A satellite launched into space can only bring so much fuel with it, and many times the fuel runs out before the satellite’s components stop functioning. This is where the MEV comes in. It is designed to locate and connect to a satellite running low on fuel, and provide the attitude control and orbit maintenance. The MEV can dock with about 80 percent of satellites currently in a geostationary orbit, even if the satellite was not designed to be serviced, and can operate for about 15 years. That means the spacecraft could attach to one satellite for a few years, undock and then help out other satellites in need. The MEV is scheduled to launch in October on a Russian Proton rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The spacecraft will rendezvous and dock with its first client satellite about three months later. The first MEV, called MEV-1, will rendezvous and dock with an Intelsat satellite, then provide services to extend the life of the satellite for five years. A second MEV, called MEV-2, is targeted to launch in 2020 to do the same for another Intelsat satellite. Once the MEV spacecraft complete their support of Intelsat, both MEV spacecraft will undock with about 10 years worth of fuel remaining. Back to 2019-10-09 issue of C.E. Weekly Back to Members Base Camp Back to CJHunter Home Page