U.S. Space Command operators need a way to maneuver satellites, its leader said Monday—even as questions linger about the military utility and cost of refueling satellites on orbit.
If the Space Force doesn’t have a way to maneuver its satellites—particularly its high-value assets in geosynchronous orbit—but the enemy has a way to refuel, “it can persistently chase you until you run out of fuel—and that’s not a state you want to be in,” Gen. Stephen Whiting said at a Mitchell Institute event.
Service officials have been pushing in the last year for the need to “maneuver without regret” in space, because satellites with short lifespans and fixed fuel tanks can constrain operations. But recent comments suggest some leaders are not sold on refueling—and the service may need to look to other, less costly ways to achieve dynamic space operations.
“The jury is still out” on refueling, Lt. Gen. Philip Garrant, the commander of Space Systems Command, said at a Mitchell event in June. It might be useful, but it might also just be “cheaper to put up another satellite,” Garrant said.
However, Whiting said the Space Force needs a way to maneuver through multiple orbits and chase after threats that in places the U.S. doesn’t typically operate, such as outside of traditional orbits.
“We want a maneuvering capability that allows us to maneuver through multiple orbital regimes. We think that will help limit the opportunity for operational surprise, so it is a mission-by-mission, orbit-by-orbit determination, but absolutely we see certain missions, certain orbits, where dynamic space operations, sustained space maneuver makes great sense for the nation,” Whiting said.
Recent discussion around on-orbit refueling and servicing comes as the Space Force has shifted its focus to deploying a proliferated architecture of hundreds cheap satellites in low-Earth orbit. With the advent of proliferation, the service needs to figure out if the benefits outweigh the costs of on-orbit refueling, Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman said in April.
And launching a big satellite to refuel in GEO wouldn’t be cheap, Garrant said in June. That “is not a trivial matter. That’s a high energy launch and it’s not inexpensive,” he said.
For now, the Space Force has included some funds in its 2025 budget request to continue analysis and do initial demonstrations of dynamic space operations. The service also recently awarded Starfish Space a $37.5 million contract to demonstrate on-orbit maneuver and maintenance in 2026.
