Space Force is putting hundreds of satellites in orbit. It needs a way to bring them down
The Space Development Agency is putting money behind a field of companies developing servicing vehicles that could be used to deorbit dead satellites.
SDA, part of the U.S. Space Force, is deploying the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture in low Earth orbit, a constellation projected to have hundreds of satellites. The agency began studying commercial disposal services in 2024 and is now moving toward flight demonstrations and operational missions.
The latest effort is Deorbit-as-a-Service, jointly funded by SDA and the Defense Innovation Unit. Firefly Aerospace, D-Orbit Space and Katalyst Space are splitting roughly $8.4 million for an initial phase focused on mission designs and technical risk reduction. Preliminary design reviews are expected by the end of the year, with SDA aiming to put a prototype in orbit by mid-2028.
The companies are taking different approaches. D-Orbit Space is proposing a reusable tug that would capture a satellite and attach a separate propulsion package, or “jetpack,” to carry out the deorbit. Katalyst is developing Nexus, a roughly 650-kilogram robotic spacecraft designed to grapple unprepared satellites, lower them into a rapidly decaying orbit and then move on to another mission. Firefly plans to adapt its Elytra orbital vehicle and a proprietary deorbit system that it says can accommodate satellites of different sizes and configurations.
SDA is also funding deorbit capabilities outside the DIU competition. Starfish Space has a separate contract worth up to $52.5 million to deorbit as many as seven PWSA spacecraft using its Otter servicing vehicle, with a first mission targeted for 2027. KMI Space is pursuing an SDA-backed STRATFI effort to demonstrate its Laelaps spacecraft and REACCH capture system in orbit.
The acquisition question
The Space Force doesn't have a centralized office for buying deorbiting services. Space Systems Command has a Space Mobility and Logistics portfolio overseeing adjacent capabilities such as satellite refueling and augmented maneuver, but deorbiting isn't currently being procured through that office.
Organizations with a specific disposal need, including SDA, are instead working directly with industry.
That makes SDA's investments a test of more than spacecraft hardware. The agency is using several acquisition routes and backing different technical approaches while industry tries to show that satellite removal can become a repeatable service rather than a succession of one-off demonstrations.
“The government is clearly leading in this area, and it’s a good example of them doing the demand signaling,” Katalyst CEO Ghonhee Lee said.
Commercial customers are watching those government-funded missions, KMI CEO Troy Morris said, but want to see the technology demonstrated before committing their own money. “There is a waiting market for in-space mobility,” he said.
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