U.S. Space Force officials said the service branch’s mobility and logistics plans involve the procurement of satellites that can be refueled and propulsion systems that can be buckled in to existing spacecraft that have run out of fuel, Breaking Defense reported Wednesday.
Brig. Gen. Kristin Panzenhagen, program executive officer for Assured Access to Space, said the Space Force seeks to fill the immediate demand signal by acquiring an engine “jetpack” that could connect with an existing satellite to give it more propulsion.
“We’re taking our cues from Space Systems Command,” Panzenhagen said. “So that’s where prioritizing on-orbit refueling is coming from as the immediate need.”
Meanwhile, Col. Joyce Bulson, director of Space System Command’s Servicing, Mobility and Logistics Office, said her office is working to “answer those demands from US Space Command as well as our other mission partner partners.”
Bulson said the technologies the Space Force is looking at are based on what other Department of Defense agencies have already started doing but noted that “we are not trying to duplicate the efforts that are being done.”
“So, it’s definitely a community of all of us coming together with these great activities and projects that have been started, but putting that together into a roadmap so that our efforts are aligned from what we’ve seen with our past engagements with our partners,” Bulson said.
Join the Potomac Officers Club’s 2024 Space Summit on March 5 to learn how new technologies, commercial investments and adversarial threats are shaping the future of space. Click here to register!