MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — A Defense Department unit is examining how SpaceX’s Starship vehicle could be used to support a broader architecture of in-space refueling.
Speaking at the Smallsat Symposium here Feb. 6, Gary Henry, a senior adviser at the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) and a former SpaceX executive, said the agency was working with SpaceX to examine how Starship’s in-space refueling capabilities could support a broader range of users.
Starship requires the use of in-space propellant transfer to enable the vehicle to travel beyond Earth orbit, such as to the moon. In that architecture, “tanker” Starships would deliver liquid oxygen and methane propellants to a depot in orbit. That depot would then be used to refuel a Starship for travel beyond LEO.
“You can refuel on orbit in LEO and add nine kilometers per second to your vehicle. You pretty much unlock the solar system at that point in time,” he said.
SpaceX approached DIU about how that architecture could be used beyond Starship, an effort that he said started while he was still at the company. “We, when I was at SpaceX, proposed ‘hey, that might be a real cool platform for you to host refueling capabilities that would be of use to the broader community,’” he recalled. “Let’s explore really novel ways to potentially exploit that and maybe help create some standards that would be leverageable by all of you going forward.”
He didn’t provide other details about the study, including specific refueling approaches or when that effort would be complete. The effort fits more broadly into dynamic space operations, one topic of interest to the DIU.
While the U.S. military has shown some interest in in-space refueling in general, there are industry concerns that it might not be a priority. That includes reports that the Space Force had considered zeroing out a budget line item for space mobility in its upcoming fiscal year 2026 budget request.
Henry said he had heard concerns that refueling and related capabilities might be “below the line” in budget planning but emphasized its importance. “Being able to maneuver in a way that your adversary cannot on orbit is one of the key differentiators that will deter and ultimately, if necessary, win a conflict on orbit.”
Another Starship application that DIU is exploring is what he called “novel responsive space delivery,” which he defined as delivering unique payloads using rockets. The Air Force Research Lab is already studying “rocket cargo” concepts, like Starship, through a Vanguard program for point-to-point transportation
The DIU approach involves using Starship for delivering cargo from orbit to the ground. “You’ve got payloads on orbit and you want to do something useful with them, and then you want to reenter them and bring them back and exploit them in some way,” he said.
“We want to leverage what’s implicit with your architecture, what’s implicit with your system, and do it in a way that’s non-interference but additive to the conversation,” he said of DIU’s general approach to using commercial capabilities like Starship.
