A survey of serviceable spacecraft failures

Abstract

This paper summarizes a survey of on-orbit spacecraft failures since 1981. A preliminary assessment of telerobotic serviceability is also included. A comprehensive database of spacecraft launch attempts and failures was compiled from a number of open sources. The main focus of the analysis is the categorization of earth orbiting commercial, military, and scientific satellites which suffered from significant on-orbit failures. To characterize the telerobotic servicing opportunities, additional technical and economic information was also developed. Each of the candidate spacecraft failures was evaluated against a series of increasingly capable telerobotic servicer types. This analysis should enable better understanding of future applications of servicing, requirements for on-orbit servicing operations, effects of servicing on spacecraft mission assurance, and the overall question of the economic viability of on-orbit servicing. It is expected that this survey of historical failures will provide a useful starting point for future evaluations of on-orbit servicing mission models and servicing architectures.