[Satellite TODAY 01-04-12] The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) will award about $36 million in contracts to companies interested in building system components for its Phoenix program, which aims to retrofit or retrieve old satellites for reuse, the agency confirmed Jan. 3.

   DARPA officials said there are currently about 1,300 GEO satellites worth more than $300 billion in orbit that could be retrofitted for new purposes. DARPA’s Phoenix system employs a class of small nano-satellites that are designed to ride as a secondary passenger on a commercial satellite launch payload heading to GEO orbit. The nano-satellite would then attach to the antenna of a non-operational satellite to create a new space system.

   DARPA added that a Payload Orbital Delivery System (PODS) would also be designed under the program to safely house the nano-satellites for transport aboard a commercial satellite launch vehicle. In a statement, DARPA Program Manager David Barnhart said the agency expects to have an on-orbit demonstration of at least one successful aperture repurposing using a robotic GEO spacecraft in 2015 or 2016. The on-orbit demonstration will take place in either a GEO, super-GEO or graveyard orbit.