Low-Cost Orbital Transfer Vehicle

Currently, Low Earth Orbit (LEO) is crowded and filled with debris and foreign weapons.  For instance, US intelligence reports that Russia is developing space-based nuclear weapon targeting US satellites.  In contrast, Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) and Geostationary Orbit (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 subject to attack from adversaries and needs to access these higher and safer orbits rapidly. The problem, however, is that, in this new era of 2nd space race of near-peer global power competition, the US is falling behind by not developing rapid maneuvering orbital transfer vehicles (OTV’s) that can quickly deliver defense assets to MEO and GEO orbits or move them out of congested LEO into these safer MEO and GEO orbits.  In contrast, China has already (4) of such rapid maneuver orbital transfer vehicles, the US has zero.  US needs to gain the high ground now. As a solution, Rocket Propulsion Systems LLC (RPS) proposes a multipurpose OTV.  It is 6X cheaper and 12X faster to deploy than current solutions.  It can deliver or move defense payloads to MEO/GEO in days rather than months required by other competing systems.  Once delivered, these assets can perform enhanced surveillance and reconnaissance with far less foreign threat.  As a dual-use, commercial companies can also build next generation MEO constellations with high throughput satellites using RPS’ OTV for transport. RPS’ OTV is a high-energy OTV concept that operates on green propellants Liquid Oxygen (LOX) and Liquid Methane (LM) or Liquified Natural Gas (LNG), 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 30 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 space maneuvers.  Our solution stands apart from traditional spacecraft relying on toxic storable propellants or low delta-V electric propulsion systems.  By offering a cost-effective, high-performance alternative, our OTV is poised to bridge the gap in the market. Priced competitively at $875K, it represents a significant cost advantage over similar systems, opening avenues for various in-space missions without the traditional cost constraints. 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 as part of its Responsive Space objectives, wherein an existing LV could use an unrelated 3rd stage to deliver a DoD payload to orbits like MEO and GEO.  This 3rd stage could be a common stage used across a variety of small/medium LVs available for launch.  The proposed OTV fits this defense use case well.