BY BRIG. GEN. (RET.) DAMON FELTMAN
Feltman was a career-long space operations officer, having commanded space units, led exercises and training at United States Space Command, and set budgets and requirements at Headquarters Space Force. Connect with him on LinkedIn.
Polaris Dawn’s History-Making EVA: The story of the week is Polaris Dawn commercial spaceflight mission. In addition to flying higher than any human-occupied spacecraft since the Apollo missions, the big-big news was the successful Extra Vehicular Activity (EVA) by Mission Commander Jared Isaacman and Mission Specialist Sarah Gillis. While Isaacman and Gillis received the bulk of attention for being the ones with their upper bodies outside the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, it’s important to note that the capsule was completely de-pressurized and open to the vacuum of space, meaning crew members Kidd Poteet and Anna Menon were suited-up as well. Source: CNBC; Space News.
One of the more interesting reports following the EVA came from Al Jazeera, where it discussed whether or not the U.S. was in violation of the Outer Space Treaty (OST) by not actively regulating the Polaris Dawn mission, and specifically the EVA. The OST is one of the legacy pieces of space law and dates to the late 1960s and under Article VI requires that non-governmental entities (i.e., commercial space companies) acting in space have authorization and supervision by the State Party to the Treaty (the U.S., in this case).
To be clear, commercial space activities of the United States are regulated by a range of agencies – the Federal Aviation Administration, Federal Communications Commission, and National Telecommunications and Information Administration, just to name a few. So, while the activities of the EVA itself might not have been under constant, direct supervision of an agency, the overarching intent of “authorization and supervision” was clearly met through all the regulatory hurdles SpaceX had to clear to get the mission off the ground in the first place. Don’t just take my word for it, renowned space lawyer Michelle Hanlon’s post afterwards said it best, “[…the spacewalk] absolutely does NOT violate the Outer Space Treaty.”
Consolidation in the Satellite Manufacturing Industry: Last month, Lockheed Martin moved to acquire small spacecraft manufacturing company, Terran Orbital, for $450 million. Terran had an impressive backlog of sales, but these fell largely into two camps. The first was to space-based internet provider, Rivada. The second was to Lockheed Martin, who has used Terran as provider for Lockheed’s contracts with Space Force’s Space Development Agency.
As Kratos Defense & Security Solutions (embed link) recently pointed out, the Lockheed Martin/Terran move is not unique, and other small manufacturers continue to be scooped. Kratos highlights acquisitions by Spain’s Indra and U.S.-based Redwire at about the same time, and continues the trend of Boeing and Raytheon having bought smallsat manufacturers in the past. Why are larger companies picking up smaller ones? Much of it has to do with trends in the DoD market, where it’s looking for smaller, more proliferated architectures, with similar or better capabilities to their legacy bigsats. It also has to do with the fact that launch costs and satellite capability for a unit of mass and volume have become much more affordable. Source: Kratos.
Will this trend continue? Maybe, but SpaceX’s Starship and Blue Origin’s New Glenn are just around the corner, and these two behemoths are optimized for putting large mass into space at a low price point per unit of mass. If X and Blue are successful then big-sats could be in for a bit of a renaissance.
Finger on the Pulse: Two technologies worth watching in space:
- Space-based Solar Power: A concept since the 1960s, this involves massive solar arrays in space beaming microwave energy back to Earth. China and the UK have ambitious programs, but U.S. efforts, mostly through the DoD, aren't currently as bold.
- Nuclear Power in Space: This isn’t new—Voyager I and II have used nuclear power since the ’70s. But with the push to explore the moon and Mars, nuclear propulsion and power are seeing a resurgence. NASA has new programs in the works, with several companies under contract to demonstrate nuclear power on the moon.
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