Starliner Still in Space, Satellite Industry is Robust
Top Stories from the Week Ending June 21
Remember when a launch into space was a rare event? This week, the buzz was about a nearly two-week pause in the cadence of launches from the Florida Space Coast, which was broken by a SpaceX on Thursday when the company launched the German Astra P1 television satellite into orbit with more planned for the coming week, beginning Sunday with a SpaceX Starlink mission and a Falcon Heavy launch planned for Tuesday.
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The Boeing Starliner remains docked to the International Space Station as mission managers continue to gather data and look into a persistent helium leak. The move off Wednesday, June 26, deconflicts Starliner’s undocking and landing from a series of planned International Space Station spacewalks while allowing mission teams time to review propulsion system data.
“We are letting the data drive our decision making relative to managing the small helium system leaks and thruster performance we observed during rendezvous and docking," said Steve Stitch, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. "Additionally, given the duration of the mission, it is appropriate for us to complete an agency-level review, similar to what was done ahead of the NASA’s SpaceX Demo-2 return after two months on orbit, to document the agency’s formal acceptance on proceeding as planned.”
Stitch said that the crew is not pressed for time to leave the station since there are plenty of supplies in orbit, and the station’s schedule is relatively open through mid-August.
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On the other side of the planet, Rocket Lab conducted its 50th Electron launch, the 46th from Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand. The other four Electron launches have originated in the U.S. at Wallops Island, VA.
The 'No Time Toulouse' mission was the first of five dedicated Electron launches for Kinéis, a company backed by private and public investors including the French government’s space agency CNES (Centre National d'Études Spatiales) and CLS (Collecte Localization Satellites) an international space-based solutions provider, to improve global IoT connectivity. Kinéis says its new constellation will connect any object anywhere in the world and guarantee the transmission of targeted and useful data to users, in near-real time, with low energy consumption with more powerful 30kg (66 pound)-class nanosats that integrate IoT technology. The constellation also includes a second mission: a ship-tracking Automatic Identification System (AIS).
Kinéis plans to deploy a 25-satellite constellation on Rocket Lab dedicated missions.
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In case you hadn't noticed, even in a sluggish economy, the satellite industry is booming. But don't just take our word for it, the Satellite Industry Association (SIA) has released its 27th annual State of the Satellite Industry Report (SSIR) this week, a global summary of the commercial satellite industry. During 2023, the industry continued to grow at an unprecedented rate.
For a sixth consecutive year, the commercial satellite industry launched a record number of commercial satellites into orbit. A total of 2,781 commercial satellites were deployed during 2023, an increase of 20 percent compared to the previous year, while the space industry once again conducted the most launches (190) in history. By the end of 2023, a total of 9,691 active satellites circled the earth, an increase of 361 percent over the past five years.
According to the report, In 2023, a historic number of launches deployed a record number of satellites. American space leadership continued with U.S. firms building 85 percent of the commercial satellites launched during the year.
The report also notes that during 2023, the overall global space economy generated revenue of $400 billion. The commercial satellite industry continued to be dominant, increasing to $285 billion and accounting for 71 percent of the world’s space business. Satellite Manufacturing – thanks to continued innovation, satellite capability and lower manufacturing costs, global satellite manufacturing revenues grew to $17.2 billion in 2023.
What is not clear is when, or if that pace will start to slow down. What we have noticed, and it's very anecdotal, is that there seems to be no dearth of startup companies designing, manufacturing and/or launching satellites. Coupled with that is the number of companies that are working in related industries, as well as space debris mitigation. Consolidation is inevitable, of course, and not all of those companies will survive. But at least on the surface, it appears that the satellite industry is going to continue to grow in the short term.
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And speaking of space debris, the commercial debris inspection demonstration satellite, Active Debris Removal by Astroscale-Japan (ADRAS-J), completed the safe and controlled approach to an unprepared space debris object – a rocket upper stage – to a relative distance of approximately 50 meters, collecting further images and data while maintaining a controlled fixed point relative position from the upper stage. And sent some pictures back to Earth, including the one above.
ADRAS-J is designed to rendezvous with an unprepared Japanese upper stage rocket body that is approximately 11 meters (36 feet) long, 4 meters (13 feet) in diameter, and weighing approximately 3 tons, demonstrate proximity operations, and gather images to assess the rocket body’s movement and condition of the structure. Unprepared objects in orbit pose an additional challenge as they are not designed with any technologies that enable docking or potential servicing or removal.
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Also on the subject of space debris, our guest on The Ex Terra Podcast this week was Joe Pawelski, Co-Founder and CTO of Cislunar Industries. In April of last year, the company was awarded a patent for its Space Foundry for in-space metal processing and contactless manipulation. The Modular Space Foundry technology takes recovered space debris and reprocesses it into standardized metal feedstock in the form of rod, wire filament, and other useful geometries, as well as propellant. In May, ThinkOrbital successfully operated an electron-beam welding system in space. CisLunar Industries developed the system that powered the operation, a 20kV power supply that boasts industry-leading size, weight, and power (SWaP).
"In space, the name of the game is we don't want to create more particles, or we don't want to create more debris," Pawelski said. "I mean that's the whole idea ... we're trying to prevent debris. So manufacturing processes that don't make debris and that aren't very invasive are really interesting to us." You can check out the entire podcast here.