The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) this week chose a commercial partner to build a satellite that can make service calls to other spacecraft, sparking a lawsuit from a rival firm claiming it has a similar program in the works.
DARPA's Robotic Servicing of Geosynchronous Satellites program, known as RSGS, is one of three development efforts intended to kick-start a new industry for the repair and servicing of satellites in orbit.
RSGS focuses on satellites in geosynchronous orbits, or GEO, located some 22,300 miles above Earth. At that altitude, satellites closely match Earth's rotational speed so they remain in a relatively fixed position, an ideal perch for providing communications, meteorology other services.
"With no prospects for assistance once in orbit, satellites destined for GEO today are loaded with backup systems and as much fuel as can be accommodated, adding to their complexity, weight and cost. But what if help was just a service call away?" RSGS program manager Gordon Roesler wrote in a column on DARPA's website.
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"What DARPA wants to do… is produce a long term architecture that is highly sophisticated, capable of doing many, many different things anywhere in the GEO belt at any time, that isn't restricted by being attached to one particular vehicle… and that you're able to bring supplies up to. That's a very different program than what a MEV does today," Steve Oldham, SSL senior vice president, told Seeker.
"I personally think there's a market for MEV and Orbital is demonstrating that," he added.
The Orbital lawsuit, filed on Tuesday in advance of DARPA's official selection of SSL as its partner, asks the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia to stop the RSGS program on grounds that it violates provisions of the 2010 U.S. National Space Policy. In part, that policy requires that the government not build or buy systems that "preclude, discourage or compete with commercial systems."
Orbital specifically objects to DARPA's plan to let SSL take over the RSGS satellite after a nine-month demonstration mission.
"DARPA's vision is unabashedly unfair and anti-competitive," the lawsuit states.
Oldham said his company is making a "substantial" investment in the RSGS program and that DARPA deliberately chose a public-private financing arrangement to ensure that the services, which are needed for military and national security satellites, would be available far into the future.
"We will promote and sustain this business long term to the benefit of both commercial and government customers," Oldham said. "Orbital had every opportunity to do the same."
Originally published on Seeker.
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