Space Infrastructure Servicing

Space Infrastructure Servicing (SIS) is a spacecraft concept being developed by Canadian aerospace firm MDA to operate as a small-scale in-space refueling depot for communication satellites in geosynchronous orbit.

In June 2017, SSL (MDA's Palo Alto, California company) announced its first commercial customer, Luxembourg-based satellite owner / operator SES S.A.

Maxar acquired SSL, then in 2019, SSL abandoned the SSP project.

MDA Corporation announced in early 2010 that a small-scale geosynchronous-orbit refueling project was under development. The design point was to be a single spacecraft that would refuel other spacecraft in orbit as a satellite-servicing demonstration. The 2010 announcement indicated that MDA had already signed an option agreement "with an unidentified satellite fleet operator that has agreed to provide an aging telecommunications spacecraft for a refueling operation as the inaugural customer". Missions contemplated included not only satellite refueling but also space debris mitigation by including the vehicle capability to "push dead satellites into graveyard orbits".

The early technical design point included a fuel-depot vehicle that would maneuver to an operational communications satellite, dock at the target satellite's apogee kick motor, remove a small part of the target spacecraft's thermal protection blanket, connect to a fuel-pressure line and deliver the propellant. In 2010, it was estimated that "the docking maneuver would take the communications satellite out of service for about 20 minutes".

A potential business model for the service, as of March 2010^[update], would "ask customers to pay per kilogram of fuel successfully added to their satellite, with the per-kilogram price being a function of the additional revenue the operator can expect to generate from the spacecraft's extended operational life".

In March 2011, MDA announced that Intelsat was to be their inaugural launch partner and that the SIS vehicle could be ready to launch as early as 2015, with Intelsat providing up to US$280 million over the timeframe that the on-orbit services would be delivered to a portion of the Intelsat satellite fleet.

As of November 2011^[update], MDA suspended the satellite servicing mission while awaiting major decisions due soon on the scope and details on planned satellite servicing missions by U.S. government civilian and defence agencies NASA and DARPA. MDA wants to "see the NASA and DARPA bid requests, see what's in them, whether [MDA] can bid as a Canadian company, or as a U.S. company". MDA Chief Executive Officer Daniel E. Friedmann said "We can't just go ahead. I know everybody says the government is not a competitor, and yes, literally they are not a competitor. But our whole business is about winning business from the government and then taking that dual-use technology into the commercial market".