[amsat-bb] Interesting article from the BBC
David - KG4ZLB
kg4zlb at gmail.com
Wed Sep 8 08:57:56 PDT 2010
The ever growing flock of space 'birds'
The space above us is about to get a lot more crowded.
A fascinating report from Euroconsult [220KB PDF]
a research and analyst firm specialising in the satellite sector, has
released a forecast for how many "birds" it expects to see fly between
now and the end of the decade - 1,220 satellites.
That's a lot of spacecraft...and a lot of rockets that will be needed to
put all those satellites in orbit.
It works out at an average of 122 satellites per year, which is up
significantly on the average annual rate of 77 satellites seen in the
It's one more indication I guess of just how important space has become.
In money terms, Euroconsult reckons the manufacturing and launch of
those 1,220 satellites will generate revenues of some $194bn worldwide.
Rachel Villain, director for space for Euroconsult, is the editor of the
report. She told me:
"About two-thirds of these 1,220 satellites are for governments, and
that of course means the commercial sector will represent the other
one-third. Most government satellites are launched to low-Earth
orbit [a few hundred km above the Earth], while commercial companies
launch mainly in geostationary orbit [about 36,000km above the
Earth]; and almost exclusively commercial operators will launch
communications satellites into geostationary orbit. Government LEO,
on the other hand, is quite diversified - for example, Earth
observation, telecommunications, science, and also satellites to
test the technology for future satellites and new applications or
A couple of good examples of demonstrators would be the recent launch by
Norway <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10599774> of a small spacecraft that
can track ships in its territorial waters; several nations are thinking
of doing this. And in the next few weeks, you should also hear a formal
announcement of TechDemoSat
<http://www.sstl.co.uk/news-and-events?story=1549>, a small UK platform,
funded by the government, which will prove several new sensors to study
In China, the scale of space activity right now is most impressive. The
China Great Wall Industry Corporation <http://www.cgwic.com/> which has
the sole rights to provide satellites for the government says it has 100
contracts for the next five years, meaning it will be launching
something like 20 rockets a year.
A couple of factors contributing to the upward trend are worth noting.
One is that some of the big commercial TV satellite operators happen to
be in that part of the cycle where they need to replace and upgrade
And there are also some big constellations of satellites being rolled
out mid-decade. Think about Galileo - Europe's new satellite-navigation
system <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8442090.stm> which
will put at least 18 satellites in a medium-Earth orbit (MEO - about
Think also about the satellite phone, messaging and internet operators
who want to re-new, supplement or simply establish fleets of spacecraft.
Comsat concerns like Iridium <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10212836>,
Globalstar, Orbcomm, and O3B will between them loft 115 spacecraft.
The numbers inevitably highlight the subject of space debris and the
need to remove redundant satellites from orbit in a timely fashion to
reduce the risks of collision.
And it illustrates, too, the headache rocket companies will face this
decade as they try first to ramp up launch rates to accommodate the rush
to orbit, and then to rescale their efforts once the backlog has been
For more (presumably including the illustrations that will not appear in
this posting, click this!
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