SpaceNews.com
• Audrey Schaffer
Paying for Space Safety: Why Satellite Operators Must Fund Debris Mitigation and Space Traffic Management
SpaceNews.com reports: No more free rides: it’s time to pay for space safety.
Satellite News
SpaceNews.com
• Audrey Schaffer
News Timeline
Space Forge said on Dec. 31 it generated plasma aboard its ForgeStar‑1 in low Earth orbit, heating its on‑board furnace above 1,000°C — a key condition the company says is required to produce semiconductor‑grade materials in orbit as it pursues on‑orbit chip manufacturing.
LandSpace's ZhuQue‑2 reached orbit on its second test flight, SpaceX launched the final v1.0/v1.5 Starlink satellites on Group 5‑15, and India’s Chandrayaan‑3 lifted off atop an LVM3 — the 102nd–104th orbital launches of 2023. If cadence holds, 2023 will reach about 195 orbital launches, a record.
At least four orbital launches the week of July 16–23 — Rocket Lab's 'Baby Come Back' with a recovery attempt, two SpaceX Starlink v2 missions and a Chinese Kuaizhou 1A flight — could lift 2023's tally to 108. If the pace continues, the year may hit roughly 195 orbital flights, a record.
Three milestones this week: China's LandSpace reached orbit on the second ZhuQue‑2 test flight; SpaceX launched the final v1.0/v1.5 Starlink satellites on Group 5‑15; and India sent Chandrayaan‑3 to the Moon aboard LVM3. These were the 102nd–104th orbital launches of 2023, keeping the year on pace for ~195 launches.
Astroscale released a video demonstrating how its End of Life Services by Astroscale‑Multiple (ELSA‑M) mission will rendezvous, capture and deorbit a OneWeb communications satellite. The footage highlights the servicer's capture mechanism and the planned disposal sequence, a step toward commercial orbital debris removal.
SpaceX is set to launch the Arabsat 7B satellite to geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) from Cape Canaveral SLC‑40, scheduled as the launch complex’s quickest turnaround between missions. The flight underscores a compressed pad cadence for commercial GTO launches at SLC‑40.
Inmarsat is expanding satellite capacity for its Jet ConneX service to deliver faster, guaranteed bandwidth to business aircraft cabins, adding satellites to increase availability of high-throughput links and support bandwidth‑intensive passenger applications. The upgrade also aims to improve connected onboard operations and ensure service levels for corporate and private jets.
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