Last week, two major constellations operators, OneWeb and SpaceX, nearly crashed in space, when two of their satellites almost collided. Another near-miss happened the same day when two other satellites nearly struck each other over the Arctic. And last month, the 2-ton NOAA-17 satellite broke up, sending dangerous debris all along its orbit. This type.
In Interesting Engineering’s article on Space Debris Collection: It’s getting crowded in space with plenty of satellites being launched every year. But what do you do with the old inactive satellites? How do you ensure they don’t become dangerous garbage? “Our fleet of reusable servicers, located in different orbits, enables satellite’s life extension and space debris removal.
The space industry is full of acronyms, but TRL or “Technology Readiness Level” is one that we hear often for many new and emerging markets. As a measure of the availability and status of the technology required for an operation, it gives an indication of how close to ‘lift-off’ is the said technology.
NSR Senior Analyst Shagun Sachdeva commented: ‘Salvage’ is a highly opportunistic market with different mission possibilities, and therefore the biggest challenge is to have immediate availability of a servicer.
The “Total loss” of a satellite like Intelsat 29e, just 3 years into its 15-year life, has 2 significant implications: the sunk cost of the satellite, in addition to over 12 years of potential revenues and 6,552 kg of uncooperative debris roaming uncontrolled in geostationary orbit.