The Orbiter: Hip at Last

Getting Younger

Hip at last 20 Under 35

Celebrating mentorship Space commercialization Hiring good people Cubesat astronomy

Every Year

Robotic space tugs

Investor interest rises

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CONTENTS Hip at Last

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Celebrating Mentorship: Randy Segal, the 2018 Mentor of the Year

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Is there anyone ELSE up there??

Hire Good People, Value Them – and Tell Them That You Value Them

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The 20 Under 35 to Watch - Featuring the 2018 Promise Award Winners

SSPI and UKSEDS Challenge Students to Develop Cubesat Astronomy Solutions

Student Teams Design a Robotic Space Tug

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General satellite industry capital intensity drop may point to rising investor interest

Upcoming Events CELEBRATING ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN NYC

SSPI & NY Space Alliance Astropreneurship Day, November 1, New York City, NY, USA. Click here for more information.

NETWORKING IN HOUSTON

SpaceCom 2018, November 27 - 28, Houston, TX, USA. Click here for more information.

CELEBRATING MAKING A BETTER WORLD

2018 Better Satellite World Awards Dinner, December 3, London, UK. Click here for more information.

Learn more about upcoming events at www.SSPI.org 2

The Orbiter Hip at Last

Hip at Last

By Robert Bell, Executive Director At the Satellite Innovation conference in Silicon Valley this year, I interviewed Randy Segal, our Mentor of the Year. A deal attorney with Hogan Lovells in Silicon Valley, Randy has made a career out of helping talent and opportunity meet – and she has done it out of the most genuine desire to help others that you are likely to meet.

No More “Not Invented Here”

I told her that I saw a real difference in the attitudes expressed by both speakers and audience this year, as compared with three years ago. In typical Randy fashion, she immediately got what I meant. “The industry incumbents and the new players are aligning,” she said. “’Old Space’ is investing in ‘New Space’ and sharing its immense experience with the new kids. And the New Space community has gotten over its ‘Not Invented Here’ attitude. Before, if it wasn’t invented in the Valley, it was garbage. Not anymore.”

It is like the world before and after the dot-com bust. Before the bust, the dotcomers were going to drive every existing industry onto the ash heap of history.

After the bust, it became clear that the old dogs had learned new tricks. They were buying dot-com technologies and applying dot-com principles to make their businesses stronger, more nimble and more profitable. Old and new were not adversaries; they were two parts of a fast-evolving ecosystem.

Cut-Offs and Flip-Flops?

SSPI was born thirty-five years ago in a bar in Denver, Colorado. We used to put on black-tie events. Now, as a proud part of that ecosystem, SSPI is hip at last.

Our Future Leaders Dinner at Satellite Innovation was 50% bigger than the previous year in New York. Our Promise Award winners came from SpaceX and Planet, as well as from SSL in Palo Alto, which has seven previous winners to its credit. We also announced our first annual list of the 20 Under 35 people in space and satellite to watch. Profiled on our website at www.20under35.com, they come from OneWeb and Ursa Space, Blue Origin and Kymeta – and from Boeing, Globecomm, Elara, Lockheed Martin, SES, SSL, Supernet and the Secure World Foundation.

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Hip at Last

On November 1, we partner with Hogan Lovells, the New York Space Alliance and the advertising agency Ogilvy to host Astropreneurship Day in New York. A workshop at Hogan Lovells on space commercialization and entrepreneurship will be followed by presentation of the Astropreneurship Awards to three entrepreneurs whose startups are driving space commercialization in New York.

From there, it’s off to London for the Better Satellite World Awards Dinner, where we salute organizations and individuals for making our planet a better home for humanity through the use of space and satellite technology.

Okay, we still wear jackets. We have not yet added ragged cut-offs or flip-flops to our ensemble.

But for a 35-year-old, SSPI is seriously cool.

Photo credit: Ele, Flickr Creative Commons

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Airbus Defense and Space salutes the 2018 SSPI Future Leaders for a job well done and wishes you many successes in the future.

Jillian Gorsuch Theodore McDonald Mike Safyan airbus.com

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The 20 Under 35 to Watch Featuring the 2018 Promise Award Winners Jillian Gorsuch – 2018 Promise Award Winner

Additive Manufacturing Technology Manager, SSL Jillian began her career at SSL through a Cooperative Education program in 2008 while working on her undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering at Cornell University.

Upon graduating from Cornell with her Master’s Degree in 2011, she joined SSL fulltime as a Responsible Mechanical Engineer in the RF Payload engineering department, where she worked on product design and delivery of more than 30 assemblies. Three years later, Jillian participated in SSL’s 18-month Rotation Program, during which she worked in the Mechanical Aerospace Ground Equipment department and the Solar Array department. After demonstrating particular talent in the Solar Array department, she took on the role of Solar Array R&D Project Manager.

Jillian was selected for her current position as Additive Manufacturing Technology Manager in 2017 and developed a 3-year technology roadmap for SSL’s additive manufacturing (3D printing) capabilities and products. She now leads SSL’s Factory of the Future initiative for additive manufacturing, which includes planning investment areas and training other SSL employees in the use and benefits of additive manufacturing. Since taking her current position, Jillian has promoted the use of 3D printing in many design areas to reduce mass and improve assembly schedules, performance, and operational lifetime for future spacecraft. She is currently leading a company-wide initiative to educate SSL’s employees on additive manufacturing to further increase these benefits. SSL is one year into Jillian’s additive manufacturing technology roadmap, and the initiatives are well ahead of schedule.

Throughout her career, Jillian has brought her talents for teaching, learning and improving efficiency to a wide variety of teams. While working on a project 6

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The 20 Under 35 to Watch

impacted by electric orbit raising (EOR), she saw an opportunity to streamline subsystem EOR requirements and volunteered to author a completely new systems document in addition to her regular workload, which required her to spend months learning from experts in five different departments. Jillian also developed tools to automate and streamline the process of creating tooling documents in the Mechanical Aerospace Ground Equipment department. She created assembly models and documentation for transceiver assembly components as part of SSL and JPL’s GRACE-FO mission, which launched in May 2018. The components required customized tooling not standard to SSL, so Jillian worked directly with the technicians building the assemblies to ensure accuracy.

Outside SSL, Jillian has helped her community, including joining her church’s Community Response Team to provide meals for new parents and those recovering from surgery and co-leading a weekly women’s Bible group.

Theodore McDonald – 2018 Promise Award Winner Manager, Raptor Test, SpaceX

Theodore “Theo” McDonald began his career at SpaceX in 2008 after graduating from Worcester Polytechnic Institute with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. Theo is currently manager of the Raptor test program, which is based out of SpaceX’s rocket development facility in McGregor, Texas. Raptor is a new methane engine being developed by SpaceX for use on its next generation vehicle, BFR, which will be the most powerful rocket in history. With a pressurized section larger than the main deck of an A380, BFR is capable of carrying payloads and large numbers of people as far as the Moon, Mars and beyond.

Since 2014, Theo has led a hardworking team that has built the Raptor engine testing program and associated test hardware from the ground up. Theo is known for his energy and positivity in motivating his team to continually push the boundaries of what is possible with Raptor development testing and qualification.

Before managing the Raptor test program, Theo worked on the development, qualification and flight acceptance testing of the first Draco engines that power The Orbiter Hip at Last

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The 20 Under 35 to Watch

SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft as well as qualification testing of the first Dragon propulsion system test article. In 2010, Dragon became the first and only commercial spacecraft capable of reaching orbit and returning to Earth. Dragon spacecraft now make regular missions to and from the International Space Station carrying cargo for NASA. Following this, Theo went on to work as a senior engineer on the development and qualification team for the SuperDraco engine. SuperDraco engines power the integrated launch abort system of the crewed version of Dragon that will carry NASA astronauts to space in the near future as part of the Commercial Crew Program.

Outside of SpaceX, Theo is an active mentor for youth science and engineering initiatives, including Big Brothers Big Sisters and other community programs in the McGregor area.

Mike Safyan – 2018 Promise Award Winner VP, Launch, Planet

Mike began his career in the space industry at NASA Ames, where he worked on the PhoneSat project, developing low-cost CubeSat platforms that use smartphone technology. In 2011, he joined the eightperson founding team at Planet Labs as a systems engineer. As the company grew from the initial eight employees to a global organization of over 450 people, Mike moved through a wide range of roles, from export regulatory licensing & compliance, overseeing Planet’s global ground station network to managing Planet’s launch strategy, the position he holds today.

In his early career at Planet, Mike was responsible for obtaining the company’s FCC Operational License, the first ever obtained for commercial CubeSats. Since then, he has been involved in the launch of over 300 satellites across twenty different launch attempts, helping Planet’s fleet grow to the largest in the world. Mike has served as an advocate for the SmallSat community as well as for Planet throughout his career, speaking at multiple conferences and workshops and negotiating with satellite operators including Orbcomm, DigitalGlobe, Spire, and NASA to establish fair and equitable spectrum and orbital sharing agreements.

In 2017, Mike oversaw Planet’s record-breaking launch of 88 Dove satellites on 8

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Congratulations to Peter Schimitsch of Globecomm and the “20 under 35” Honorees and Promise Award Winners.

Globecomm takes pride in supporting our industry’s next generation of visionaries, and looks forward to the new heights they and their teams will bring us.

A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.

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The 20 Under 35 to Watch

India’s PSLV. The launch allowed Planet to achieve its Mission One: imaging the entire Earth every day from space.

Described by his colleagues as passionate, generous and remarkably levelheaded, Mike dedicates time to the smallsat industry outside of his work at Planet as well. In 2016, he helped establish the Commercial Small Satellite Spectrum Management Association (CSSSMA), an industry organization that advocates for smallsat spectrum sharing. He also works with the Brooke Owens Fellowship selling Aerospace t-shirts (https://www.etsy.com/shop/StarfishPrimeApparel) to raise money, and volunteers with Meals on Wheels and Glide Church to help feed the needy in San Francisco.

Ali Akhtar Head of Commercial Satellite Services, Supernet Limited Raoul le Boucher d’Herouville Lead Manager, Industrialization & Production, OneWeb Satellites Zack Downey Data Scientist, Ursa Space Systems Inc. Joanna Estrada Schutz Corporate Culture and Customer Experience Senior Manager, Elara Comunicaciones Phil Hahn Engineer, Blue Origin Arlen Kam Flight Dynamics Mission Analyst, OneWeb Jeff Kendall Manager, Space Power and Control Electronics, SSL 10

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The 20 Under 35 to Watch

Jessica Koloini F-16 Program Manager, Middle East & North Africa, Lockheed Martin Valvanera Moreno Spacecraft Program Manager, SES Marvin Salas VĂŠjar Infrastructure Manager, Elara Comunicaciones Peter Schimitsch Manager, Systems Engineering, Globecomm Systems Inc. Emily Schubert Payload Systems Engineer, The Boeing Company JP Sheehan Senior Mission Systems Engineer, OneWeb Cate van Oppen Manager, Strategic Partnerships, Kymeta Krystal Wilson Director of Space Applications Programs, Secure World Foundation Lindsay Wolff Project Manager and Systems Engineer, GEOshare (subsidiary of Lockheed Martin) Adam Yozwiak Manager, Space Subsystems Engineering, OneWeb The Orbiter Hip at Last

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Celebrating Mentorship:

Randy Segal

The 2018 Mentor of the Year Partner, Hogan Lovells US LLP

Randy Segal co-heads the Global Space Practice at Hogan Lovells, a position she has held for nine years. Her career in the space and satellite industry started in 1992, and includes many leadership roles, including serving as general counsel or director, for American Mobile Satellite Corporation, XM Satellite Radio, Hughes Network Systems, TerreStar Networks (now EchoStar), and Mobile Satellite Ventures/SkyTerra (now Ligado Networks).

At Hogan Lovells, Randy represents a wide range of clients, including some of the most active global satellite innovators and new space companies, startups, large Silicon Valley players, and even sovereign governments.

Throughout her career, Randy has served as a mentor, guide, and advisor for aspiring space professionals, particularly the growing number of young women entering the field. Her efforts include working with SatNews to profile more women at its SmallSat and Satellite Innovation Symposiums, as well as working actively with the Women in Space Initiative to advocate for mentorship and support for women in the satellite industry. For these achievements, the Women in Space recognized Randy as the first honoree for their Women in Space Excellence Award in March of 2017.

Randy has also served as a visiting faculty lecturer at the International Space University since 2012. Prior to that appointment, she served as an adjunct professor at George Mason Law School for over ten years, further demonstrating her commitment to educating and mentoring the next generation of industry professionals.

Randy is known to offer her experience and knowledge to everyone around the table, no matter what case or project she is working on. She has a deserved reputation as a trusted advisor for numerous industry people on a variety of issues, The Orbiter Hip at Last

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Randy Segal, the 2018 Mentor of the Year

always making herself available to new industry entrants for quick chats, second opinions, and general advice.

According to Lisa Kuo, Head of Commercial Programs at The Aerospace Corporation, “Randy has been an advocate of helping newcomers navigate the complicated and sometimes confusing web of who’s who. She has developed an insightful intuition about people, what makes them successful at companies at various stages, and actively seeks out people who would benefit from her mentoring to bring their companies to the next stage.”

Outside the space and satellite industry, Randy dedicates yet more of her time to helping and guiding others. She has served on the board of directors for multiple not-for-profits over the last twenty years, including Capital Caring, Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship, and 1000 Urban Scholars. She has also taught a “Street Law” program to 9th graders at the Thurgood Marshall Academy for the past eight years, aiming to enhance the professionalism and aspirations of her students.

For her years of dedication to the industry, and her commitment to mentoring the next generation of space and satellite professionals, Randy Segal is a worthy winner of this award.

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Congratulations, Randy on being named the 2018 Mentor of the Year! Your energy and spirit are out of this world!

From your friends at Columbia Capital.

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Is there anyone ELSE up there??

By Lou Zacharilla, Director of Innovation A man walking along a cliff feels the ground give way beneath him. He manages to clutch at a root extending from the face of the cliff, which saves him from falling 1,000 feet onto the jagged rocks amidst the crashing surf below. But he cannot climb back.

He shouts up, “Is anyone up there!?”

A voice fills the sky! “Have faith. If you have faith. If you have faith you can let go and you will fall light as a feather, landing unhurt on the rocks below.” He looks down at the rocks and crashing surf, thinks about it, looks back up and shouts, “Is there anyone ELSE up there?”

That’s how we felt when SSPI began working with the New York Space Alliance to launch an Upstate New York chapter. We knew about the super team of Adam Maher and Derek Edinger, two former Promise Award winners, who had started their own business near Ithaca’s Cornell University. Ursa Space has been the pride of entrepreneurial space ventures “up there.” They successfully raised rounds of money and are on their way.

Ithaca is for sure “up there.”

In New York City, people refer to all other parts of the state as “upstate” or “up there.” But SSPI knew that inside the great post-industrial cities of Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse, there are some of the best universities in North America, with engineering programs that are a perfect mix for a space commercialization ecosystem. One has been forming lately. Startups are beginning to take shape in these places, thanks in part to the encouragement of New York Space Alliance and people like former NASA Chief Technologist Mason Peck, who was teaching, working and mentoring in the community and region.

We have wanted to help to continue to seed, support and promote a New York State-based space commercialization industry. So, this year we have started modestly, with support from Hogan Lovells, and our 2018 Mentor of the Year, Randy Segal, as well as the team at NYSA and the Ogilvy ad agency.

The result is New York’s first Astropreneurship Day in New York City on November 1st at Hogan Lovells in Manhattan.

The event is free.

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Is there anyone ELSE up there??

The program will be conversations with entrepreneurs, experts and venture people who are making the ecosystem in New York vibrant. We have arranged for conversations with Alex Clavel, whose SoftBank Group famously plunked down money to support the OneWeb vision, along with Will Porteus of RRE Ventures, who has continued to support entrepreneurship in NY. We will have the people “up there” - who will be down “here.” There will be a panel with our new Astropreneurs of the Year, the GLADOS (Glint Analyzing Data Observation Satellite) team at the University of Buffalo’s Nanosatellite Laboratory. Their bird, built by student teams for the USA Air Force Research Lab, NASA and Moog is a cubesat scheduled to launch during the next 24 months. Its mission is to collect light data and to report on an issue that could drive future space missions off the cliff: space debris.

Ragnarok Industries, the best new business in Williamsburg, Brooklyn – a hotbed for tech startups – will talk about its nanosat company, which is delivering polar broadband service with a bird called Hiemdallr. http://www.ragnarokindustries. com/working/ This one is being watched closely and has a special design electrical propulsion (non-volatile and non-energetic) for its planned propulsion toward lunar orbit.

They will be joined by Mr. Porteus and the “old men” of the Upstate space and satellite scene, the founders of the above-noted Ursa Space. Ursa is led by two former SSPI Promise Award recipients and, along with Globecomm, is a sponsor of the event. Ursa recently raised over US$12 million in new funding. I will moderate this one and ask whether a new industry can take shape in a part of the world best known for cold, decline and losing Super Bowls. You’ll be surprised at what you hear about the resurgence of the “Empire State.”

Joseph D. Fargnoli, one of the founders of the New York Space Alliance, and a resident of Rochester (NY), where his company is based, will moderate a panel on the “physics” of new space valuation. He will be joined by industry finance legends Armand Musey and Hoyt Davidson, as well as Noel Rimalovsky of GH Partners. He may ask, “are we in a period of ‘irrational exuberance’ with new space?” How should new ventures be evaluated? How about the mature ones?

The networking will be fantastic, thanks to Hogan Lovells. The experiences positive. Come and see who is there, and who else is up there!

Click here to learn more about the first annual Astropreneurship Day!

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Global connectivity, Local delivery

Eutelsat congratulates Randy Segal, Partner, Hogan Lovells US LLP the 2018 Mentor of the Year and the 2018 Promise Award Winners

KEY VIDEO NEIGHBHOHODS TO GROW YOUR REACH

Groundbreaking coverage from Alaska to Peru.

Ideal for growing pay-TV markets in the Americas www.eutelsatamericas.com

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Hire Good People, Value Them – and Tell Them You Value Them An Interview with Kay Sears Kay Sears was planning to be an advertising executive with a nice corner office in Manhattan and influence over the purchasing choices of millions. Today, she is vice president and general manager for military space for Lockheed Martin, the global security and aerospace company with a major role in both commercial and government space and satellite.

What happened? She had a job interview with an official of the US Department of Commerce and “in that one interview, I just completely changed my whole idea of what I wanted to do,” says Kay. “He was talking about some of the satellite weather programs that the Commerce Department runs through the National Weather Service, and I started becoming so intrigued with space and sensors, and that became my first job.”

This story comes from the latest Making Leaders interview with a key executive in our industry, following on earlier interviews with Mark Dankberg of ViaSat and Gwynne Shotwell of SpaceX. The Making Leaders series explores – not the technology or business of their companies – but their early career experience, the lessons learned as they began to manage people, and how those lessons shape their leadership today. It’s a “how to” for careers in space and satellite that focuses on the attitudes, traits and expectations these leaders brought to their careers and bring to their leadership today.

We asked Kay why most of her career had been spent in government and military space. Before her position with Lockheed Martin, she served as president of Intelsat General, the government services unit of Intelsat, and she also helped launch government service units at both G2 Satellite Solutions and Verestar.

“I feel that the military space missions we build systems for and deploy to warfighters have such criticality,” she says. “I’ve always thought of space as the ultimate high ground. The systems we deliver and the capabilities we provide are The Orbiter Hip at Last

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Hire Good People, Value Them – and Tell Them That You Value Them

very motivating for me. I became a space geek and really got into what space could deliver.”

What defines talent for Kay? “I look for critical thinking skills first and foremost.

People need to think through alternatives, make decisions and be accountable for them. I care about how they think of their team, whether they understand the need to gain respect through caring but demanding leadership, whether they understand how to delegate. Expertise in their field is a given with the massive programs we have to manage.”

And her biggest career takeaway? “I’ve learned that your success is not just about you. It has so much to do with your team. So, you have to hire good people.

You have to value them. And you have to tell them you value them. We don’t do that enough. We get busy and we don’t say “hey, you did a great job.” That builds trust, which is indispensable.”

Our interview with Kay is available on video on the SSPI website and through our podcast series on the site, on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

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INNOVATION THAT’S OUT OF THIS WORLD.

Vision and perseverance are the launch pads of innovation. Boeing is proud to support the Space & Satellite Professionals International and its work to connect satellite professionals and educators. We are honored to support the Future Leaders Dinner and congratulate the 2018 honorees.

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SSPI and UKSEDS Challenge Students to Develop Cubesat Astronomy Solutions SSPI and UKSEDS have worked together since 2016 to bring student competitions to UKSEDS’ annual programs. Student teams from universities across the United Kingdom work together, with advice from an SSPI Mentor, to determine their specific mission parameters, define requirements, learn about technologies and industry practices, and recommend designs, schedules and costs for implementation as well as policies needed for success in a final report.

Last year, we challenged student teams to design a small communications satellite capable of delivering 50 Mbps of data connectivity from LEO to small antennas on the ground. Click here to learn more about last year’s Competition and the winners. For the 2019 Competition, we focus instead on cubesats:

Cubesat Astronomy

According to the magazine Nature Astronomy, we are on the verge of an astronomy cubesat revolution. Cubesats, of course, are small satellites built inexpensively in standard sizes and form factors. They offer the opportunity to monitor sources for weeks or months, while NASA orbital telescopes are constantly re-tasked from mission to mission. They are effective for studying wavelengths that are not accessible from the ground, including ultraviolet, far-infrared and low-frequency radio. Advances in precision-pointing, compact sensitive decors and miniaturization of propulsion systems are providing new capabilities.

In this Competition, we ask students to research and identify an astronomy opportunity or requirement for which cubesat technology offers a high-quality solution and provide a high-level design for one or more cubesats capable of carrying out that mission and transmitting observational data to Earth.

The top-scoring teams of the 2019 Competition will receive cash prizes at UKSEDS’ annual event in March 2020. Details of their designs will be available on the SSPI website once the winners are announced!

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Student Teams Design a Robotic Space Tug Every year, SSPI and SEDS-USA team up to stage a research competition to give students their first exposure to the demands and practices of commercial space and satellite, and help turn individual promise into career potential. For the 2018 Competition, student teams were challenged to envision a multi-purpose space tug designed to operate in Earth orbit and cislunar space. This year’s competition attracted a record number of teams, including participants from Georgia Tech, MIT, Purdue University, University of California San Diego, University of Central Florida, University of Colorado Boulder and University of Kentucky. The winners will be awarded cash prizes at SpaceVision 2018 in November.

First Place: University of California San Diego Team

The University of California San Diego team took first place in the 2018 Competition by designing Argo, a space tug intended for multiple trips between LEO and lunar orbit while carrying an upwards of 34 metric tons of cargo. It is also designed to be able to deliver satellites to GEO or lunar orbits with an estimated mission time of 45 to 95 days. Argo would have a lifespan of about 7 years of continuous operation.

Second Place: MIT Team

The MIT team took second place in the 2018 Competition by designing a pair of Full Service SpaceTugs with highly capable robotic arms, enabling them to dock with a wide variety of LEO satellites and service even satellites with no service-enabling features or technology on board. The SpaceTugs would be capable of refueling hydrazine, moving/removing, surveying, and limited repair. The MIT Team also included a series of smaller SpaceTuglets in its design to refuel the SpaceTugs.

Third Place: Purdue University Team

The Purdue University team took third place in the 2018 Competition by designing the Sisyphus Tug-Station System. The Sisyphus Tug would have the ability to deorbit and maneuver satellites operating from an orbital station located in LEO as well as target larger pieces of space junk and remove them from heavily populated orbital radii and can be outfitted with a module designed to move supply capsules to the Lunar 4 Orbital Platform Gateway (LOP-G).

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General satellite industry capital intensity drop may point to rising investor interest

By Craig Barner. Market disruption, technology advances and reduced launch costs are some of the factors shrinking capital intensity of the satellite industry, although whether this points to lower risk and higher investor interest is up for debate.

The cost of an Earth observation satellite is about 20% to 30% of that from five years ago, Will Porteous, general partner with RRE Ventures, told SatelliteFinance in an interview. RRE is the lead investor in EO operator Spire.

“It’s radical,” he said of the decline in capital intensity.

Virtually all sectors are experiencing cost reductions, Matt O’Connell, partner with venture capital firm and space investor Seraphim Capital, said in a separate interview, including launch, manufacturing and operations.

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General satellite industry capital intensity drop may point to rising investor interest Several factors are axing away capital needs, including market acceptance of satellites, O’Connell noted. Users are interested in satellites that have short lives and more limited abilities but can be replaced frequently as technologies mature.

Other factors include sensor miniaturisation and acceptance of commercial components, rapid innovation, the lower cost of some raw materials – silicon for solar reflectors, for instance – and other trends.

An alternative view Not everyone agrees that capital intensity is going down.

Capital intensity remains “high” and comes from the increasing number of satellites for constellations being envisioned, although the cost per satellite might appear cheap, Orange Silicon Valley principal Hugo Wagner told SatelliteFinance.

“Making a business model work around constellations of hundreds of satellites still remains challenging,” he added.

As investors consider these views, there is little doubt that the emergence of smallsats has disrupted the satellite industry.

Indeed, smallsats are being launched at a cost per satellite that is a “fraction” of that for older, larger and high-capability satellites.

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General satellite industry capital intensity drop may point to rising investor interest The estimated average price per kg in smallsat launch has dropped 40% compared to 2016, according to 2018 State of Satellite Industry Report from the Satellite Industry Association (SIA). The group attributes the decrease to consistent launch cadences, a lower-cost mix of vehicles, the increased launch rate of SpaceX, the revenue drop due to fewer launches from United Launch Alliance’s Delta IV rocket and lower pricing for ULA’s Atlas V vehicle.

Moreover, interest in smallsats is increasing, especially the “kit” form of cubesats, the SIA report found. In 2017 almost 350 smallsats – those less than 600kg in mass – were launched, an almost 140% increase from around 150 in 2016. Cubesats comprised about 85% of the 2017 number.

It attributes the jump in part to cubesats being a “low-cost option for commercial purposes”. Most are intended for EO, though the others are for communications, with constellation plans ranging from the tens to “several thousands”.

Traditional satellite mixed There are mixed trends in the traditional satellite sector.

There are only “minor” reductions in the manufacturing costs of GEO satellites built

by Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT), Boeing (NYSE:BA), Maxar Technologies (NYSE:MAXR)owned SSL, Airbus Defence and Space (EPA:AIR) and Thales Alenia Space for telecoms, government and other uses, O’Connell said.

But launch costs for big birds are decreasing. SpaceX and International Launch Services helped develop a cost-discipline model for their rockets. Carrying a price tag of around US$61.2m, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 averages US$2,864 per kg, while ILS’ Proton M costs US$65m, averaging US$2,826 per kg, according to a report from the US Government Accountability Office.

After these, the next-most-affordable vehicle in roughly the same class is Mitsubishi Heavy Industries’ H-IIA/B vehicle, which costs US$90m-112.5m, averaging US$6,818-9,000 per kg. These rockets can loft up to 16,500kg to LEO, which is a smaller mass than Falcon 9’s 22,800kg.

SpaceX has introduced innovations that have filtered through the industry, with the foremost being reusability of the primary booster for Falcon 9, thereby affecting cost. The rocket has executed 16 propulsive landings, according to the company, as well as some failures, and the company is looking to expand this capability to reuse of fairings, nose cones and other systems.

Entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, who founded launch provider Blue Origin, recently said that engines could be used as many as 25 times. Virgin Galactic also incorporates reusability in rockets being planned.

Additive manufacturing, streamlined manufacturing and simplified rocket design and other factors also helped launch providers keep costs down.

Besides reduced launch costs, some operators have benefitted from close relationships. Eutelsat’s (EPA:ETL) recent five-launch agreement with Arianespace was the “third sequential reduction” in launch costs for the company, Jefferies analyst Giles

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General satellite industry capital intensity drop may point to rising investor interest Thorne said in a note. These costs have “generally come down 30-50%”, he added.

Rideshare savings?

Rideshare is also a factor in reducing costs, some say, but others offer caution about this view.

Prices for rideshare range from US$30k-40k per kg of the satellite launch mass to as high as US$100k per kg of satellite launch mass, according to sources. Meantime, upstart players are trying to develop solutions that address the rising demand and are aiming to offer dedicated smallsat launches for US$20k per kg of the satellite launch mass.

Those prices “aren’t cheap” compared to SpaceX’s recently introduced and enormous Falcon Heavy, which ranges around US$2k per kg of satellite launch mass, Wagner said, adding that the payload capability of each launcher varies “drastically”.

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General satellite industry capital intensity drop may point to rising investor interest Launch executives underlined the benefits of rideshare during the recent World Satellite Business Week in Paris.

Other cost-reduction factors

There are other reasons for the decline in capital requirements, with the software-defined architecture of satellites a key factor, Thorne said.

Indeed, Porteous called satellites “uploadable files”. He added: “The concept of enterprise computing is being applied to spacecraft. It allows us to upgrade the componentry.”

Electric propulsion and mission-extension options have also reduced costs in satellite, Thorne said.

Last year, a report issued by analytics company Technavio said that the weight of a chemically powered satellite can be reduced by integrating electric propulsion technology, which can lessen the overall weight of a satellite by up to 40%. Fit satellites translate into lower costs.

It also forecasted that the global electric satellite market will expand at a compound annual growth rate close to 14% between 2017 and 2021.

The improvement of satellites marches along with the reduced costs, Porteous said.

Spire has launched 55 satellites, with the first in 2014, over 15 launches. These birds represent 13 generations of spacecraft.

“With each release [of satellites], we’ve advanced the design of spacecraft,” he added.

Cost outlook

With exceptions, revenues in the industry are generally increasing and they are expected to continue to increase as new products and services are offered, O’Connell said. The world is “addicted” to mobility and data.

“Everyone expects always-on, high-speed connectivity wherever they are,” he added.

Yet revenues are declining in some areas, especially in GEO satellite manufacturing.

This accounts for Airbus Defense and Space entering into the joint venture to manufacture smallsats with OneWeb and Thales Alenia Space acquiring a minority stake in US-based Spaceflight Industries to help build a smallsat constellation.

“In the future, there will be a lot more partnerships among the old and new space companies,” O’Connell predicted.

He added: “In launch, I wouldn’t be surprised if one of the bigger launch providers partnered with a launch broker.”

This article originally appeared in SatelliteFinance at https://www.satellitefinance.com/ user?destination=/insights/general-satellite-industry-capital-intensity-drop-may-point-risinginvestor-interest.

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The Orbiter Hip at Last

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As you know, SSPI has transformed its news vehicle, The Orbiter, into a beautiful, page-turning digital magazine you can read from your desktop, tablet or phone, or as a handy print-out to carry with you on travel trips. The Orbiter brings SSPI news, coverage of the Better Satellite World campaign, and new research reports to more than 6,000 members and industry contacts.

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