WASHINGTON ― Northrop Grumman plans to launch its robotic servicing spacecraft designed in partnership with the Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency (DARPA) later this summer, according to senior company officials.
“We are manifested. What I can say is our rocket is provided by SpaceX, and … we Northrop Grumman, have purchased the entire rocket, so we’ll be launching the Mission Robotic Vehicle, along with our three Mission Extension Pods,” Robert Hague, president of the company’s SpaceLogistics subsidiary, told reporters Tuesday at a tour of the company’s testing facility in Sterling, Va.
“When this MRV launches it will be the United States first robotic servicer,” he added.
The Robotic Servicing of Geosynchronous Satellites (RSGS) has weathered a rough road since initiated by DARPA in 2017, including an early lawsuit and the sudden abandonment of the effort by the original contractor Maxar Technologies in 2019.
Northrop Grumman, which picked up the contract in 2020, is paying for the launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 and was originally slated to launch its MRV in 2024. (DARPA’s funding for the public-private venture technically wrapped up in 2025 according to the agency’s fiscal 2027 budget documents.)
