At Airbus, no Northrop Grumman satellite life-extension envy, at least not yet

by Peter B. de Selding

WASHINGTON — Airbus Defence and Space in 2018 figured it would be just behind Northrop Grumman in launching a satellite-servicing to begin a commercial business the company had been preparing for years.

But at the end of that year, Airbus had shelved its Space Tug, having concluded that there was insufficient commercial demand for satellite refueling. Northrop persevered, and its Mission Extension Vehicle-1 (MEV-1) is now docked with an Intelsat satellite in geostationary orbit to provide it with an additional five years of service. This same vehicle . . .

To view the entire article, become a subscriber!

You may also like