Developments in Brief : TRW Unveils Space Tug for Satellites

A full-scale mock-up of an unmanned flying saucer-shaped spacecraft that could significantly extend the life expectancy of U.S. satellites and other space vehicles was unveiled last week by TRW Inc. of Redondo Beach.

The $200-million craft, NASA’s Orbital Maneuvering Vehicle, is a space tug designed to rescue faulty spacecraft, perhaps by boosting them into higher orbit when their orbits are failing, as happened with Skylab in 1979. It also might tow such craft to a shuttle or to the proposed space station for maintenance, repair or refueling.

NASA eventually hopes to have a fleet of the tugs that could venture as high as 23,000 miles from Earth to pick up orbiting communications satellites.

The tug is built inside out--with all its electronic systems and fuel supply on the outside--so that it can be serviced in space with plug-in modules and fuel tanks. The craft would be remotely piloted from the ground.

It is scheduled to be launched by the shuttle in 1991, according to a spokesman for NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. Its first mission is expected to be that of boosting the Hubble Space Telescope into a higher orbit.