Intelsat Signs Up for MDA’s Satellite Refueling Service

By Peter B. de Selding
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MDA Corp. says its Space Infrastructure Services vehicle, depicted refueling a
satellite, could launch in 2015. Credit: MDA Corp. artist's concept
MDA Corp. says its Space Infrastructure Services vehicle, depicted refueling a
satellite, could launch in 2015. Credit: MDA Corp. artist's concept
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WASHINGTON — Satellite fleet operator Intelsat’s agreement to be the anchor
customer for MDA Corp.’s revolutionary satellite in-orbit refueling service brings
the project much closer to realization but may be insufficient to permit MDA to
begin full-scale development without a complementary government customer, Intelsat
and MDA officials said March 15.

Luxembourg- and Washington-based Intelsat has agreed to purchase about half of the
2,000 kilograms of fuel to be carried on the inaugural flight of MDA’s Space
Infrastructure Services (SIS) vehicle, which could occur in 2015. The most likely
launcher will be a Russian Proton rocket, which can carry slightly more than 6,000
kilograms to geostationary transfer orbit. That would suggest that the MDA SIS
robotic servicer, combined with a satellite platform to be built by ISS Reshetnev
of Krasnoyarsk, Russia, could weigh close to 4,000 kilograms.

Intelsat officials said they want several of their satellites to be given enough
fuel to extend the satellites’ lives by three to five years. Officials said a
general rule of thumb is that it takes about 50 kilograms of fuel for each year of
additional in-orbit life.

In separate briefings with investors and reporters March 15, Intelsat and MDA
officials described the inaugural SIS mission this way:

Intelsat will select one of its satellites nearing retirement to be moved into a
standard graveyard orbit some 200 to 300 kilometers above the geostationary arc
36,000 kilometers over the equator. It is the most used orbital highway for
telecommunications satellites.
Richmond, British Columbia-based MDA will launch the SIS servicer, which will
rendezvous and dock with the Intelsat satellite, attaching itself to the ring
around the satellite’s apogee-boost motor.
With ground teams governing the movements, the SIS robotic arm will reach through
the nozzle of the apogee motor to find and unscrew the satellite’s fuel cap.
The SIS vehicle will reclose the fuel cap after delivering the agreed amount of
propellant and then head to its next mission.

MDA Chief Executive Daniel E. Friedmann said in a conference call with investors
that MDA has identified more than 40 different types of fueling systems and that
the SIS will carry a toolkit designed to open most of them.

Steve Oldham, president of MDA’s newly formed Space Infrastructure Services

division, told reporters here March 15 that SIS will be carrying enough tools to
open 75 percent of the fueling systems aboard satellites now in geostationary
orbit.