SpaceIntelreport.com (Peter de Selding) reports that the Orbital ATK legal attempt to force the US Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to stop helping its rival SSL (Space Systems/Loral) with its in orbit servicing effort in the end came to nothing. This was after the US District Court of the Eastern District of Virginia ruled against the firm’s complaint that the financial help as part of the DARPA’s robot arm-equipped Robotic Servicing of Geosynchronous Satellites (RSGS) was unfairly distributed after a SSL won the RSGS contract to build a demonstration spacecraft.
Artists impression of RSGS spacecraft. Courtesy: DARPA/SSL
Specifically, Orbital ATK was trying to block the transfer of the spacecraft to SSL after it is used to initially demonstrate the technology to DARPA. This spacecraft will, in effect, be a direct competitor to Orbital ATK’s MEV (Mission Extension Vehicle) concept which will be operated by Orbital ATK’s subsidiary Space Logistics LLC.