Satellite Market Continues Expansion

There is no slowdown in the number of new satellite systems being announced and developed. Just learned of one called PredaSAR, which is being billed as the world’s largest constellation of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites, with an initial 48 satellites planned. The satellites are being built by Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems and will be launched aboard SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets, beginning in 2021.

There is also a new program by the US Space Development Agency called Transport Layer Tranche 0 developing a system of 20 data relay satellites for the Pentagon. Lockheed Martin will build 10 of the satellites and York Space Systems will build the other 10. Another program called Blackjack (by DARPA) calls for up to 20 technology satellites. A company called Blue Canyon Technologies has the inside track on building the buses for those satellites.

Then there are the replacement satellites for major constellations such as Europe’s Galileo. ESA is preparing to award a contract for the construction of the second-generation Galileo navigation satellites—a total of 30, including six in-orbit spares.

Then there are the big commercial programs we’ve known about but were not sure whether their satellites would be approved for launch and operation. Amazon’s Project Kuiper, which would compete against massive systems such as Starlink and OneWeb, comes to mind. On July 30, the FCC approved the 3,200 satellites under Project Kuiper and stipulated that at least half of those satellites must be launched by 2026. OneWeb has also gotten FCC approval to expand its proposed constellation from 720 to 2,000 satellites.

Of course, not all of these new constellations are going to happen. Some like Maxar Technologies’ 300-satellite Telesat LEO will fall by the wayside, as I recently learned. There will be many others that go nowhere, but that shouldn’t noticeably affect the overall robustness of this growing market.