Servicing Study

The NASA On-Orbit Satellite Servicing Study, mandated by Congress and supported by the NASA Advisory Council (NAC), investigates what our future may hold in the area of satellite servicing. It was conducted from 2009-2010.

An internal Project Report captures the work performed under the congressional mandate. SSPD's report to Congress is currently under review.

• Read the On-Orbit Satellite Servicing Study Project Report (PDF)

The Study revealed that viable plans can be put into place to develop a meaningful on-orbit satellite servicing capability. Such a capability would allow America to achieve key milestones in space using today's technology as well as current and projected launch systems.

Study Activities

The study incorporated the results from the following major activities:

1. A 2009 industry-wide Request for Information, released to notify the satellite servicing community of an opportunity for discussion
   • Read the 2009 Request for Information (PDF)
2. The International Workshop on On-Orbit Satellite Servicing, conducted to engage the community
   • Learn more about the 2010 workshop
   • Access the presentations from this workshop
3. An examination of "notional missions" to bracket the trades involved for possible servicing customers (available within the Project Report)
   
   
4. Examining near-term, in-space hardware demonstrations to provide relevant and immediate results
   • Learn more about NASA's Robotic Refueling Mission
5. Developing and validating ground simulator and test bed capabilities that can be used to verify satellite servicing flight hardware and software
   • Discover what NASA's GSSDF tests for space

Document Library

• Servicing RFI 2009 (PDF)