Satellite Servicing vs Decommission-and-Replace

Simulation Speed

Time acceleration 2.5 yr/s

Satellite & Fleet

Nominal propellant life 7.0 yr

Years of station-keeping fuel before the tank runs dry — the payload itself keeps working.

Replacement gap 2.5 yr

Build + launch time for a brand-new satellite once the old one is de-orbited.

Economics

New satellite cost $220M

Servicing mission cost $65M

Dock-before-empty margin 18%

Servicer docks once propellant falls to this fraction — before it hits zero.

Decommission & Replace

Cumulative cost

$0M

Service-years

0.0

Replacements launched

On-Orbit Servicing

Cumulative cost

$0M

Service-years

0.0

Refuel dockings

How it works

A communications or observation satellite is almost never retired because its electronics or payload failed — it's retired because it runs out of station-keeping propellant, the fuel that fights orbital drift and perturbations to hold its assigned slot.

Decommission & replace: once the tank hits zero the satellite is de-orbited. A brand-new satellite must then be built and launched — a multi-year gap where the orbital slot delivers zero service, at the full cost of a new spacecraft.

On-orbit servicing: a robotic servicer docks with the aging-but-functional satellite before it runs dry, transferring propellant (or attaching itself as a persistent mission-extension propulsion module). The satellite keeps earning revenue with no interruption, for a fraction of a new-build's cost.

Both charts track the same underlying propellant-burn physics for a fair comparison — only the response to depletion differs. Watch cost-per-service-year settle far lower for servicing.

Decommission & Replace

Status Active

Propellant 100%

On-Orbit Servicing

Status Active

Propellant 100%

Simulated mission time: 0.0 years

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Cumulative cost ($M)

Decommission & replaceOn-orbit servicing

Cumulative service-years

$ / service-year (decommission)

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$ / service-year (servicing)

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