Artist’s rendition of satellites orbiting the Earth – rottenman/123RF Stock Photo
SpaceX and its Starlink satellites have made the news for multiple reasons this week. On December 2nd SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket put 48 Starlink satellites into a 430 km low earth orbit from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Starlink had already launched just under 850 satellites this year with a rapid launch cycle earlier in the year, but this was paused as it upgraded its satellites, which are now equipped with laser-based systems to communicate with each other in orbit, and less with the ground, the company has said.
Ride-sharing on the rocket were BlackSky 12 and 13, which were two optical Earth Observation (EO) satellites. The two satellites can image in four bands and panchromatic mode, and have a ground resolution of 0.9 – 1.1 metres, and follow the launch of BlackSky 10 and 11 in the middle of November. BlackSky are hoping to have a constellation of 12 satellites in orbit by the end of the year, as part of an intended 30 strong constellation, however BlackSky 8 and 9 failed to get into orbit earlier this year.
Overall there are currently almost 2,000 Starlink satellites in orbit, and Elon Musk confirmed by tweet on 30th November that they were impacted by the recent Russian anti-satellite missile test that destroyed the inactive Tselina-D #38 satellite, creating thousands of fragments of space debris. He reported that SpaceX had to move the orbits of some Starlink satellites to reduce probability of collision. The tweet was in response to NASA’s decision to cancel a spacewalk from the International Space Station due to the risk of debris. The tweet noted the situation was not great, but not terrible either!
On top of the satellites SpaceX already has in space, it has approval to launch 30,000 more satellites, and an option for an additional 12,000. It is this expansion that in a recent interview with the Financial Times led Josef Aschbacher, Director-General of the European Space Agency, to ask Europe’s leaders to prioritise the European Space industry and to stop enabling Elon Musk to dominate the new space economy and effectively ‘make the rules’ for the industry. This followed Germany’s recent recent application for Starlink spectrum for about 40,000 satellites.
The ESA Director-General wants a collective approach to ensure European space companies have equal opportunities in the new space economy, which is challenging when one company has dominance by owning the majority of the world’s active satellites. The concern about the Starlink constellation, and other similar ones such as OneWeb, is a genuine one as there are issues such as reduced orbital slots; lack of available satellite frequencies, impacts on professional star gazing and astrophotography; and an increased potential for collisions.
However, it can also be seen as a timely reminder for European leaders after the failure to reach agreement the UK’s ongoing participation in the Copernicus programme following Brexit by the deadline of 30th November. The UK and EU have been at loggerheads recently over issues such as the Northern Ireland Protocol, fishing rights and migrant crossings, and participation in Copernicus and Horizon Europe programmes. For Copernicus. this failure leaves a €750 million budget hole covering the UK’s intended contribution, the fourth biggest, and ESA desire for the next phase of the programme to continue as planned. Whilst the European Union has not closed the door on the UK’s participation, as it has noted that the deadline has been extended and negotiations are continuing, it is difficult to see this being resolved quickly with the other issues.
Space is being transformed and the new space economy is being developed and created quickly by the people who have funding to do it. If you are not involved you’ll be left behind
