May 4, 2018: Weekly Spatial Resolutions

Stories I happened upon during the past week. Space Warfare: We Must Defend Our Big, Exquisite Satellites Someone wants to keep the military-industrial complex alive and well. I don’t understand this article, other than the obvious hand-wringing about keeping large satellites alive and kicking. Bigger military satellites don’t necessarily equal great performance. They will, however, […]

Is There a Way to “Predict” the Space Industry’s Future?

In a previous post, “Which is the “Good” Future?,” I hinted at trends helpful to figuring out what the Space Industry’s future might be. Near the end of the post, I set out a few bullets to help show what trends might be helpful to watch. Let’s start this post with the obvious: I don’t […]

A Motorcycle Rider Defines Space Situational Awareness

There’s been a lot of hand-wringing in recent years regarding space situational awareness (SSA). Almost every month another article appears, portending of the upcoming calamity in space–the point in which one rogue satellite or a chunk of debris hits another satellite or chunk of debris. These two chunks initiate a celestial version of pool. As […]

Launching satellites is getting cheaper?

Last year was pretty good for small satellites weighing less than 10 kg (22 lbs). 46 percent of all satellites launched in 2014 weighed less than 10 kg. A LOT of satellites were launched in 2014. Heck, just one Russian Dnepr rocket deployed 37 satellites during one launch last year. Many were deployed from the International […]

Why Space Matters: HEO Satellite Operations, Part 5–Spysats, IR, and MMS

The Molniya orbit, a type of highly elliptical orbit (HEO), was the focus of the last HEO post. And it was noted that the Molniya is an orbit perfectly suited to communication. But what other missions and satellites use the HEO? Believe it or not, the US has organizations that use the HEO for a […]