Payload
• Victoria Woodburn
The Space Development Agency and Defense Innovation Unit selected three companies to develop designs for scalable satellite capabilities covering rendezvous, capture and deorbit operations. The effort points to a defense-led approach for building commercially enabled on-orbit servicing and debris-removal capacity.
Space Debris & Traffic Management
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The Space Development Agency and Defense Innovation Unit selected three companies to develop designs for scalable satellite capabilities covering rendezvous, capture and deorbit operations. The effort points to a defense-led approach for building commercially enabled on-orbit servicing and debris-removal capacity.
A discarded SpaceX Falcon 9 upper stage struck the lunar surface earlier this month at roughly 8,700 kilometers per hour. While the impact was harmless, the event underscores the growing challenge of tracking and managing rocket hardware and other objects beyond Earth orbit.
The Pentagon has chosen three companies to examine options for providing satellite disposal services to the U.S. government. The study will assess whether aging spacecraft can be deorbited by commercial operators, potentially replacing a dedicated government capability with an externally procured service.
As commercial and national missions accelerate, experts warn that discarded rocket stages and other hardware could accumulate on the lunar surface without clearer rules. The debate highlights an emerging governance gap around lunar preservation, mission planning and responsibility for objects left behind.
Novaspace projects that emerging in-orbit services will generate approximately $3 billion in cumulative service revenue over the next 10 years. The forecast points to an early-stage market focused on making space operations more flexible, resilient and sustainable, while the sector continues to develop commercial applications and capabilities.
A SpaceX rocket body slammed into the moon earlier this month, underscoring the operational hazards created by uncontrolled spacecraft near the lunar surface. As governments and companies establish a sustained presence there, managing impact risks and traffic around the moon will become increasingly important.
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The emerging orbital data-center sector is converging on sun-synchronous orbits, intensifying questions over congestion, coordination and operational rules. The development also raises a strategic policy issue for Europe: whether it will help shape the traffic-management framework governing a potentially important new class of space infrastructure.
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Astranis is expanding beyond communications satellites with Perceptor, a spacecraft designed to monitor and maneuver around other objects in geostationary orbit. The company says the system addresses shortcomings it encountered with existing space-domain-awareness technology, targeting surveillance of an increasingly contested orbital environment.
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