The paper presents results of studying power capabilities of the small space tugdesigned to transfer small spacecraft to the separate orbits at a rideshare launch. Using the ballistic analysis methods, it solves the problems in determining parameters of the small space tug reach zone relative to a certain specified initial orbit, and identifies the rational schemes for transferring the Earth remote sensing satellites to the latitude-stabilized sun-synchronous orbits. The paper shows that it becomes rational to have a characteristic velocity reserve for a small space tug from 0.5 to 1.5 km/s for provision of the peripheral launch services during cluster launches in the range of low near-Earth orbits with an altitude of up to 1000 km. It takes into account the requirement to combat the technogenic space pollution. For formation of the target sun-synchronous orbits and, in particular, the latitude-stabilized orbits when using various joint launch campaigns, the most rational lies in a characteristic velocity reserve of 0.5 km/s. Relevance of the considered problems is determined by the need to increase competitiveness of the domestic launch vehicles by design and development of a Russian small space tug.

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