![]() “It’s from both traditional players that normally ignored small satellites but are now offering services and resources and then also new players that have come up in the past five to seven years to specifically address these booming markets.” “It’s a taboo word in the launch world, but we’re now seeing just an explosion of options,” he said. ![]() Safyan said Planet was able to build up its “flock” of satellites as more affordable rockets came to the fore, which eventually generated a cycle of supply and demand. “When we were starting the company about 10 years ago, it was hard to even get some of the launch providers to pay attention to us, because small sats were still viewed as kind of an academic hobby,” said Mike Safyan, Planet’s vice president of launch. The ability to pay for rides on rockets specifically designed to carry CubeSats and other small payloads, in particular, introduced new ways for Planet and other space startups to reach orbit. The competitive launch market has been a boon for companies such as Planet, which maintains a fleet of more than 200 small, remote-sensing satellites that capture constant round-the-clock views of Earth. Rocket Lab charges around $5 million per flight, a cost that works out to roughly $10,000 per pound of payload. The company provides launches to Earth orbit for small satellites, which range from CubeSats roughly the size of a loaf of bread to minifridge-sized spacecraft that weigh less than 1,100 pounds. ![]() Rocket Lab, an aerospace company founded in New Zealand and headquartered in Long Beach, California, debuted its Electron rocket in 2018. The emergence of new commercial launch providers, such as SpaceX and Rocket Lab, created a competitive market that drove down the price of rides to space. “Now, there’s much more room to innovate.” “Twenty years ago, space launches were a very government-dominated capability,” Koller said. In recent years, as it became more affordable to send satellites and other objects into orbit, access to the cosmos was democratized, said Josef Koller, a systems director for the Center for Space Policy and Strategy at The Aerospace Corp. “How can we make sure that we are taking advantage of the opportunities but also be well aware of the responsibility that comes with that?” Ekblaw said. Yet alongside the numerous benefits to society, increasing access to space and supporting an economy in orbit comes with its share of challenges, including how to balance a growing industry with the safe and sustainable use of outer space. Once a realm dominated by just a few spacefaring nations, the cosmos is opening up to nascent space programs around the world, to entrepreneurs and innovators, to commercial companies and even to students. “It’s a huge sea change from the former paradigm,” said Ariel Ekblaw, founder and director of the MIT Space Exploration Initiative. Smaller satellites and lower launch costs mean startups and students can sometimes launch projects for just a few thousand dollars. ![]() It has revamped the orbital landscape, dramatically expanding access to the cosmos and fueling what is projected to grow into a trillion-dollar commercial space industry.Ĭompanies that once had to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to put a satellite into orbit can now do the same for a fraction of that price. The flurry of activity has been driven in recent decades by significantly lower costs to launch into space, the availability of smaller, cheaper components to build satellites and other spacecraft, and the growth of private space companies.
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