Flyaway

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Hitching a ride to orbit with Eutelsat 5 West B is another Northrop Grumman property also built on the GEOStar satellite bus.
The Mission Extension Vehicle, or MEV, is a revolutionary offering from Northrop Grumman designed to increase an already on-orbit GEO satellite’s lifetime by five years or more.


 
It's an exciting development: the first time one satellite will dock with another and take over some of its functions.
 
It has been successfully launched but there’s now a fifteen hour trek to spacecraft separation.
 
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While no plan exists to use the vehicles in such a manner, an example of their potential use in Low Earth Orbit include a hypothetical rendezvous with the Hubble Space Telescope, whereafter an MEV-like craft could take over precision pointing operations for the telescope once its gyroscopes fail.

 
And docked.



View: https://youtu.be/369DZc2mKo0
 
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View: https://mobile.twitter.com/planet4589/status/1381809630909755392


MEV-2 finally docked with IS10-02 in geostationary orbit at 1734 UTC Apr 12. (The
@northropgrumman
press release as 1.34pm EST, but they actually mean 1.34 pm EDT: https://news.northropgrumman.com/news/releases/northrop-grumman-and-intelsat-make-history-with-docking-of-second-mission-extension-vehicle-to-extend-life-of-satellite… )

View: https://mobile.twitter.com/planet4589/status/1381810291881738241


(What is it with Americans not knowing how to write the time zone they are in? This is the 5th such mistake I've seen this month. Do they not teach you this in school? Daylight savings zones are PDT MDT CDT EDT, vs standard time zones PST MST CST EST)

View: https://mobile.twitter.com/planet4589/status/1381810716680806400


(... and it *matters* particularly for the historical record - e.g. parts of the Mountain zone region - Arizona - are still on MST while other parts are on MDT. May not be obvious to someone years from now whether the writer was in such a locality. ...)

View: https://mobile.twitter.com/planet4589/status/1381811519378317313


This rant brought to you by years of trying to convert missile and rocket launch times quoted in old newspaper articles and government documents and trying to convert them to UTC...
 
 
1274-EX-CN-2022

Intelsat proposes to raise Galaxy 25 from its station-keeping box in geostationary orbit to 300- 330 km above the geostationary arc and drift for two years before docking with the MEV.

Galaxy 25 will drift approximately 4 degrees per day and be placed into sun acquisition mode. During this time, Intelsat will continue radiofrequency interference mitigation, close approach monitoring, and TT&C operations. Intelsat will also coordinate with other satellite operators throughout the drift. The estimated end of Galaxy 25’s maneuverable life for this drift as proposed is 2025.

After approximately two years of drifting, Galaxy 25 will dock with the MEV, and the MEV will perform a series of tests while docked. Intelsat will continue to coordinate operations with other satellite operators throughout the docking phase.

Following this proof of concept, Galaxy 25 will be fully decommissioned consistent with the Orbital Debris Mitigation Plan submitted by Intelsat and previously approved by the Commission in connection with Galaxy 25’s commercial authorization.

Intelsat agrees toaccept the same orbital debris obligations that currently apply to the Galaxy 25 spacecraft as a condition of the requested experimental license. To the extent there is any delay with the proposed docking with the MEV, Intelsat will decommission the satellite prior to docking as needed to comply with the previously approved Orbital Debris Mitigation Plan.
 
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