Low-Cost Rapidly Maneuverable Orbital Transfer Vehicle

Rocket Propulsion Systems, LLC (RPS) offers a high-energy, low-cost, and rapidly maneuverable Orbital Transfer Vehicle (OTV) that operates on green propellants liquid oxygen (LOX) and liquid methane (LM) or Liquified Natural Gas (LNG)) and is powered by a novel “Centurion” rocket engine developed in-house.  At full thrust of 3,307 lbf, vacuum Isp of 374 sec, total propellant mass of 108 kg, inert mass of 38 kg, and total burn duration of 25.6 sec, this OTV can deliver a high total impulse of 84,659 lbf-sec, which can be applied to perform a variety of rapid maneuvers in space.  A standout feature is its long-term cryogenic propellant storage capacity, made possible by the use of soft cryogens, and innovative thermal management system ensuring zero boil-off (ZBO).  The OTV is offered at a low cost of $1.4M/unit.  This positions our OTV as a versatile tool for defense and commercial missions, ranging from orbital transfers to in-space assembly and manufacturing (ISAM). The US and its allies depend on satellites in MEO and GEO orbits for a range of national security services.  Currently, LEO is crowded and filled with space debris.  China and Russia are also fielding a variety of ways to attack US space assets in LEO including anti-satellite weapons.  By contrast, MEO and GEO are vast and empty, and practically represent the next frontier in commercial and defense space usage.  The US has an estimated $75B in defense assets spread across LEO that are subject to attack from adversaries and needs to access higher and safer orbits rapidly.  However, in this new era of 2nd space race of near-peer adversarial power competition, the US is falling behind by not developing rapidly maneuvering OTVs that can quickly reposition and/or deliver defense assets from the congested and contested LEO into the much safer MEO and GEO.  For instance, China already has at least (4) of such OTVs, while the US has zero.  With the emergence of small and medium LEO launch vehicles (LVs) by Rocket Lab, ABL Space Systems, Firefly, etc., and their projected maturity by 2027, Space Force is closely exploring a future launch vehicle enhancement capability, wherein an existing LV could use an unrelated 3rd stage to deliver a DoD payload to MEO and GEO. RPS’ OTV could be used as a common 3rd stage launched on these and similar future LVs.  It can lift new defense payloads when launching from Earth, or latch onto predetermined assets in LEO, and reposition and/or deliver them to MEO/GEO in days rather than months required by competing systems.  Example missions include a 150 kg sat to 2,000 km MEO, a 88 kg sat to 15,000 km MEO, or a 22 kg sat to 42,000 km GEO.  Once delivered, these assets can perform enhanced surveillance and reconnaissance with far less foreign threat.  Commercial companies can also build next generation MEO constellations of high throughput satellites or perform ISAM activities using RPS’ versatile OTV for delivery or transport.