In-Space Cryogenic Propellant Transfer (ISCPT)

In 2024, the Cryogenic Fluid Management Portfolio Project Office (CFMPP) at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center tasked a group of engineers to write a high-level guidelines document for In-Space Cryogenic Propellant Transfer (ISCPT). The group produced CFM-DOC-008 Guidelines for In-Space Cryogenic Propellant Transfer (ISCPT), which was baselined in January 2025. The document is not prescriptive in nature but is intended to assist NASA and Commercial Projects in developing architectures and ConOps for systems under development. The document “sets the stage” by making some initial assumptions – among them that two spacecraft (termed the “propellant supplier spacecraft” and the “propellant receiving spacecraft”) are docked together, and the act of docking the two spacecraft accomplishes the mating of cryogenic fluid coupling devices (termed “cryocouplers”). Then the document discusses procedures for settled propellant transfer, unsettled propellant transfer, cryocoupler construction, and safety.

The ISCPT is a groundbreaking document; no other document like it exists. Even in its simplest form (settled transfer), the transfer of cryogenic propellants in microgravity is very complex. The benefit of the ISCPT document is that it gives engineers a place to start when planning propellant transfer(s) for systems under development.

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