Venture Aims To Prolong Life of Geo Satellites

摘要

ATK and U.S. Space have created a joint venture that aims to extend the lives of geo-stationary-orbiting satellites that have ex-hausted their station-keeping fuel but still have sufficient electrical power to continue operating, the companies announced Jan. 13.Dubbed Vivisat, the joint venture would use its Mission Extension Vehicle (MEV) to latch onto geostationary satellites to pro-vide station-keeping propulsion, the com-panies said. The space tug also could be used to move satellites from one orbital slot to another and to salvage satellites stranded in the wrong orbit, the companies said.