Orbital servicing to become a key opportunity area
With the space transitioning to ‘maintenance economy’ phase, the next major opportunity will come from maintaining assets already in orbit.
A GEO satellite costs $300–500M to build and launch, and most retire after ~15 years - not due to hardware failure, but because propellant depletion prevents station-keeping. Roughly 20–30 GEO satellites retire annually due to this.
A refueling mission buying 5–7 additional years on a $400M asset is financially rational.
In LEO, the challenge is debris and collision risks. Active LEO satellites exceed 14,000 in 2026 and projected to surpass 40,000 by 2032. In 2025 alone, 4,434 satellites were deployed into Earth orbit - a ~65% increase over 2024.
With most debris in LEO (highest in 750–1,000 km altitude), this rise in density means ever-increasing space debris collision risk. The debris numbers are stark: 25,000+ objects larger than 10 cm are tracked; ~500,000 particles between 1–10 cm; and 100M+ exceeding 1 mm.
At LEO velocities of 7–8 km/s, a 1 cm fragment carries enough kinetic energy to destroy satellite subsystems or disable critical components.
Starlink alone performed ~300,000 avoidance manoeuvres in 2025.
These challenges are driving an entirely new infrastructure category – In-orbit servicing (IOS), comprising sub-segments – debris removal, refueling, satellite upgrading, and restoration and repair.
Recent deals signal the sector is moving from concept to contract:
Starfish Space closed a $110M Series B in April 2026 for Otter servicing missions contracted with SES, NASA, and the US Space Force
BULL and Fujitsu announced a partnership in April 2026, to develop a high-precision Space Situational Awareness (SSA) service in Japan
Vyoma won an ESA contract in Feb 2026 for debris environment data from its Flamingo-1 satellite, for use by ESA for statistical modelling of the space debris environment
ESA and ClearSpace announced PRELUDE (Jan 2026), an in-orbit debris removal mission (test) targeting a 2027 launch
In India, OrbitAID is building a propellant supply chain using tanker satellites - targeting in-orbit repair and restoration services to extend spacecraft functionality and lifespan.
IOS is transitioning from introduction to growth stage and is in the early phases of commercialisation - meaning there is significant room ahead for first movers.
The direction is clear: “space is becoming infrastructure, and infrastructure requires maintenance”.
The satellites are already up there. The infrastructure to keep them running is the next frontier. Countries building sovereign space capabilities should be investing in IOS / OOS as a strategic move. A nation that can service its own satellites in orbit will be less dependent on replacement launches, less exposed to supply chain risk, and more resilient in contested environments.