Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has been distressing to watch over the last few weeks, and the war has already had an impact on the space industry in several ways.
Launch Facilities
In 2021 almost a fifth of the objects launched into space took off from Russian facilities. Either from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in the north-west of the country, the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the south-east close to the Chinese border, or the Russian Baikonur Cosmodrome based in Kazakhstan. With the economic sanctions placed upon Russia, the difficulties with using these launch facilities were obvious.
The first to feel the impact was OneWeb, the company partially-owned by the British Government, which had planned to launch 36 satellites as the latest phase in their broadband constellation on the 5th March 2022 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome.
There was pressure on the company, and the UK Government, not to go ahead with the launch after the invasion. However, on the 2nd March the Head of the Russian Space Agency, Roscosmos, announced that the launch would only go ahead if:
- There was a guarantee that the satellites would never be used for military purposes, and
- The British Government sell its stake in the company.
Anyone who has followed the OneWeb story will know that one of the reasons the British Government invested in the company was the potential to use the satellites as an alternative to Galileo’s Public Regulated Service – which the UK lost access to with Brexit – and is an encrypted satellite positioning system to support guided missiles and military operations.
This meant, as Russia knew, that OneWeb couldn’t agree to the first condition. Just after 4 pm on the 2nd March, Kwasi Kwarteng, the UK Business and Energy Secretary announced that the UK government was not selling its OneWeb stake. The following morning, the Board of OneWeb announced they were suspending all future launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome – and it had six scheduled for this year to complete its global broadband constellation.
The OneWeb satellites are currently stranded in Kazakhstan and they had prepaid for the six launches, with Russia indicating that no money will be returned. This has thrown up both practical and financial issues for OneWeb:
- Practical issues of simply finding new launch facilities. Most launch facilities are already booked for this year, and there will be a scramble for any spare capacity. In addition, the satellites were designed to be launched on the Russian Soyuz craft and may require modifications to be launched on a different vehicle.
- Financial pressures due to having to pay for additional launch slots, replacement satellites and the delays in launching their global broadband service – although the existing constellation can offer a service to high latitude regions such as Alaska, Canada, and northern Europe. It’s reported that this could cost OneWeb £300 million, and could even impact its viability.
The Russian Space Agency has offered the OneWeb launch slots ‘practically free’ to any Russian private space companies that want to launch satellites.
European Space Agency (ESA)
ESA and Russia have been collaborating for many years in space, but the war in Ukraine has brought that to a shuddering halt.
On the 26th February, Roscosmos announced it was suspending cooperation with European partners in organizing space launches from the Kourou Cosmodrome using the Soyuz rocket, and they withdrew their personnel. ESA launches over the next 18 months, planned to go up on Soyuz, include:
- Two pairs of Galileo satellites
- EarthCARE satellite
- Sentinel 1C radar satellite
- Euclid infrared space telescope
ESA has also acknowledged that the launch of the joint Europe/Russia €1.68bn ExoMars mission to land a life-seeking rover on Mars is “very unlikely” to go ahead as planned. ESA, which has an office in Moscow, has a Council meeting on the 16th March and is expected to give further announcements after this.
International Space Station (ISS)
The ISS is a long-standing collaboration in space and is currently crewed by four Americans, two Russians and a German. The crew have no choice, currently, but to co-operate to keep the station running effectively. This is illustrated by the news that one of the American astronauts will be travel back to Earth at the end of this month in the Russian capsule alongside two Russian cosmonauts as originally planned.
On the station America is responsible for power and life support, while Russia is responsible for propulsion. The latter is required to keep the ISS in orbit, and there have already been suggestions that they might let it fall to Earth, but this is thought to be unlikely. Russia had already indicated that they planned to withdraw support for the ISS in 2025, but could they do so earlier?
Summary
There is war in Ukraine and the repercussions from are being felt around the world and into space.
