{"id":49413,"date":"2025-04-02T19:06:42","date_gmt":"2025-04-02T11:06:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/us-space-force-awards-northrop-grumman-2-in-space-refueling-contracts\/"},"modified":"2025-04-02T19:06:42","modified_gmt":"2025-04-02T11:06:42","slug":"us-space-force-awards-northrop-grumman-2-in-space-refueling-contracts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/us-space-force-awards-northrop-grumman-2-in-space-refueling-contracts\/","title":{"rendered":"US Space Force Awards Northrop Grumman 2 In-Space Refueling Contracts"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n<p>The <strong>U.S. Space Force Space Systems Command<\/strong> (SSC) has awarded <strong>Northrop Grumman<\/strong> two in-space refueling contracts, the company said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese contracts build on Northrop Grumman\u2019s proven on-orbit satellite servicing and refueling innovation, including first-of-its-kind mission extension services that protect critical space assets in Geosynchronous Orbit for both U.S. government and commercial partners,\u201d the company said.<\/p>\n<p>SSC awarded Northrop Grumman a contract for the Elixir refueling payload program. This program \u201cwill enable the Space Force to refine tactics and procedures for rendezvous and proximity operations, docking, refueling, and undocking of on-orbit vehicles \u2013 foundational capabilities for servicing, mobility and logistics,\u201d Northrop said.<\/p>\n<p>Under a separate contract, the Space Force made a multi-unit ESPAStar purchase. One of these spacecraft will host the refueling demonstration payload on its ride to space.<\/p>\n<p>Northrop Grumman said on Wednesday that Elixir builds upon its work for SSC on the Geosynchronous Auxiliary Support Tanker and \u201cincludes elements to successfully perform rendezvous and proximity operations, dock and undock with a demonstration client satellite, to transfer and receive fuel.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe refueling payload will be equipped with the company\u2019s Active Refueling Module (ARM), which interfaces with Northrop Grumman\u2019s Passive Refueling Module (PRM) for the transfer and receipt of fuel,\u201d the company said. \u201cOperational client satellites equipped with PRMs will benefit from this mature technology because they can be refueled.<\/p>\n<p>The company\u2019s PRM was approved by SSC\u2019s Space Systems Integration Office last year as a refueling interface for consideration by SSC programs. Multiple PRM flight units are currently in production for the Space Force.<\/p>\n<p><em>A version of this story was first published by Defense Daily<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The U.S. Space Force Space Systems Command (SSC) has awarded Northrop Grumman two in-space refueling contracts, the company said on Wednesday. \u201cThese contracts build on Northrop Grumman\u2019s proven on-orbit satellite servicing and refueling innovation, including first-of-its-kind mission extension services that protect critical space assets in Geosynchronous Orbit for both U.S. government and commercial partners,\u201d the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":49414,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49413"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49413"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49413\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}