"I think the US national security community is going to shape commercial space for the foreseeable future," Carissa Bryce Christensen, CEO of BryceTech, told Breaking Defense.
The robotic arms built by the Naval Research Laboratory to be carried on a SpaceLogistics Mission Robotic Vehicle are designed to operate "autonomously" to do "inspection, orbital adjustment, repair and upgrade" missions on spacecraft "that were not designed to be grappled," Bill Vincent, the lab's program manager, told Breaking Defense.
Breaking Defense Europe will launch May 4 with Tim Martin and Elisabeth Gosselin-Malo as co-editors.
DIU is seeking companies with the "capability for bulk storage of liquid (>5,000 kg) and gaseous propellants on orbit," including hydrazine, liquid oxygen and others.
"It's not just resiliency from a life-extension perspective" for the Space Force. said SpaceLogistics President Rob Hauge. "We've got the potential to actually include other payloads as well,"
"I think there are more questions than answers right now when it comes to SJ-21," Todd Harrison, director of CSIS's Aerospace Project, told Breaking Defense.
The SURI program is is aimed at transitioning "high risk, high reward ideas in science" to "applied technology and advanced technology development," said Maj. Gen. Heather Pringle, AFRL director.
The Sixth Domain is not defined by geography. It’s a new kind of conflict in which autonomy and networked systems allow thousand-dollar consumer electronics to destroy multi-million-dollar conventional weapons systems.
"I see a great expansion in capability that will come as a result of this," Anderson said of SpaceLogistic's first robotic on-orbit servicing mission.
The robot satellite known as RSGS will provide four types of service: inspection of anomalies that appear in a satellite's operations; assist with adjustments to a satellite's orbit; correct mechanical problems; and, help install new payloads to upgrade capabilities.