By Pascal Wauthier, Chairman, The Space Data Association
2020 has certainly been one of the strangest years of all time for pretty much everyone across the entire globe. It has also been extremely challenging for the satellite industry and all testament to the amazing people in this industry that critical services have kept going throughout. The Space Data Center is of course one of those, and I’m thankful it was able to carry on regardless.
In my recent review of the year in Sat Magazine, I asked how 2020 has impacted space situation awareness. Here are four ways we have seen it affected:
- LEO Launches Delays
The launch market has naturally gone down this year due to Covid-19 or company restructuring, and we have not seen the vast number of LEO launches anticipated. From a pure space situational awareness (SSA) point of view, perhaps that has bought us some time to find better ways to fix the problem before the skies get any more congested. That said, the LEO launches have only been paused and I don’t think we are any closer to having tools in place that will ensure SSA is properly managed across all orbital regimes. This should be a matter of priority in the months and years ahead.
- Debris continues to grow
One thing that hasn’t disappeared is debris. In fact, according to NASA’s orbital debris program office, as of January 1st, 2020, the volume of debris in Earth’s orbit exceeded 8,000 tonnes. It is clear that debris remains a challenge and it is something we have not yet solved. If we are going to solve the problem of debris, we will need a multi-faceted approach to:
- Increase awareness and responsibility of all stakeholders,
- Ensure effective SSA to avoid causing more debris,
- Ensure adherence to end-of-life guidelines,
- Find new ways to remove the debris already created, such as the European Space Agency’s ClearSpace-1, mission to remove an item of debris from orbit, which is planned for launch in 2025.
Together, all of those areas can help us ensure a much cleaner, safer space environment for all.
- Satellite operators are looking to cut costs
This is of course the same story across every industry. Cutting costs will help companies get through a challenging period, but of course that will have a knock-on effect for everyone right through the chain. It also pushes funding for non-profit making initiatives such as SDA further down the list in terms of importance. We are always looking to keep costs to a minimum without compromising on the quality and reliability of the service we are providing. This was even more important this year with many of our members facing financial pressures caused by COVID. Fortunately, we were able to reduce our costs significantly and pass that onto our members. We have removed the scaling per satellite fee structure, giving members just one flat fee depending on membership category.
- Government Services are on the Horizon
To date SSA has essentially been the responsibility of commercial operators, however it has long since been discussed that national governments should be shouldering some of that responsibility. This year, it seems we are getting closer to that reality. We have indeed seen a few initiatives in Europe like the European Space Surveillance and Tracking (EUSST). . This year, in US, we observed increasing activity to implement Space Policy Directive 3, a document that established a policy to transfer responsibility to the US Department of Commerce (DoC) as a focal point for the US collision avoidance service presently being provided by the Department of Defense.
The Future of SSA
Satellite has been critical to keeping the world connected throughout a challenging year. As we move into 2021, we are already seeing a return to launches and many more will likely happen over the coming months. This is great news for the industry, but we need to ensure we are ready with the right tools in place to keep space safe and reliable for everyone.
You can read my full year in review in the latest Sat Magazine.