Born from Cold War-era competition among great powers, space launches originally were at the direction of civilian government agencies like NASA and military ones such as the U.S. Department of Defense.
Private companies and western governments looking to operate their own communication or other satellites had to contract with NASA to get them into orbit. Sensing an opportunity, the European Space Agency created Ariane, first launched in 1979, and later Arianespace in 1984 as a private company to conduct future commercial operations. This development, combined with the ultimately unsuccessful move from expendable launch vehicles (ELVs) to the Space Shuttle orbiter fleet, marked the inauspicious beginning of the commercial launch services business.
Space Shuttle Columbia first flew in 1981, the system was declared operational the next year, and was followed in 1983 by the cessation of federal funding of ELVs in hopes the planned operational tempo of a growing orbiter fleet would meet demand. Although missed by all except the most ardent of space industry observers, the first successful American private launch took place on September 9, 1982, with Space Services Inc. of America’s prototype Conestoga 1 rocket taking off from Matagorda Island in Texas.
The approval process for the latter, however, proved so onerous as to spur Congress to debate reforms, only to be bogged down over which executive-branch agency would play the leading role. Instead, on July 4, 1982, President Ronald Reagan issued national security decision directive (NSDD) 42, “National Space Policy,” prioritizing expansion of the private sector in civilian space activities. Subsequently, the President’s Senior Interagency Group of Space identified a variety of potential benefits including a high-technology industrial base, thousands of jobs, spinoff opportunities, heightened U.S. global status, a market for excess hardware and related material, as well as potential usage of government and related facilities.
The move proved prescient. The shuttles proved less reliable than hoped and cost the lives of two crews with the 1986 Challenger and 2003 Columbia disasters. Decades later, paucity has given way to ubiquitousness as a fledgling commercial launch industry has matured and proliferated to such an extent as to become a brand in and of itself. New Space, explains Teal Group analyst Marco Cáceres, is a colloquial term to describe “hundreds (perhaps thousands) of new entrepreneurial satellite and launch vehicle companies entering the market just in the past few years.”
A previous article from this publication covered the challenges of establishing commercial space launch sites, as well as highlighting a few spaceports around the world. In recent months, however, a new commercial spaceport has received its licensing and begun to make headlines from an unexpected, yet geographically advantageous location: Nova Scotia.
Setting Sail
About four years ago, Stephen Matier, founder, CEO and director of Maritime Launch Services Ltd., moved to Nova Scotia in hopes of establishing a one-of-a-kind facility. An engineer with a background as a NASA contractor, Matier had been searching for a coastal North America location to establish a commercial launch site. While some existing locations have been accommodating commercial launchers, many are federally owned and prioritize government missions. Maritime Launch considered 13 locations across North America, finally settling on Canso, about three and half hours north of Halifax, the province’s capital. Nova Scotia provided a few unique benefits to the establishment of a spaceport, including ocean access, distance from local populations and minimal air and marine traffic, and a range of launch inclinations east and south over the Atlantic Ocean from 45.1 to 98.1 degrees.
Robert Feierbach, president of Maritime Launch USA, shared what the early days of Spaceport Nova Scotia entailed. “After Matier moved to the area, he started talking to the local businesses, communities and First Nations, just to really understand their concerns. What were the things they were worried about? What would they like to see happen with an establishment like a launch site?” These four years of community discussion led to a social approval license, and, just last year, to a license to launch a five-ton payload vehicle, or a medium class vehicle. “Our local host communities, the Mi’kmaq and all Nova Scotians, can be confident that we will build and operate the spaceport with a focus on safety and environmental stewardship,” said Matier. “This was our focus when we began the initiative years ago and it remains our commitment for the future.”
To date, the site’s test launchpad is underway, which will be the location of the spaceport’s first suborbital launch in July of this year. This will feature a small rocket that will reach an altitude of roughly 30 kilometers. Near the end of the year, Maritime Launch hopes for their first orbital launch using the smaller scale infrastructure. In the meantime, Feierbach explained, the main launchpad and facility will be under construction, with a tentative completion date of 2025.
Spaceport Nova Scotia provides a new and unique opportunity for Canadians nationwide and especially within the province. “Canada has a fairly buoyant satellite manufacturing capability,” said Feierbach. “Now, the fashion is to build satellite constellations — smaller ones that work in sync, as opposed to one or two big satellites. This means you need more of them to achieve the same kind of coverage and each only lasts three to five years. That creates a great opportunity for the manufacturing industry.”
Buoyant Market
Currently, about 7,500 active satellites orbit Earth and on average 50 take to the heavens every week, according to an April 2023 report published by McKinsey & Company. Many of these, like those proposed by Maritime Launch, operate in constellations, serving commercial applications from remote sensing to communications to navigation. As of this March, the report states, there were more than 5,000 communications satellites, having increased by about 15% per year since 2017. About 1,000 remain active for Earth observation and 1,500 for technology development, research and other missions. Current plans include up to 65,000 new satellites for communications and 3,000 for other needs. As the space economy and exploration expand, launch needs could increase further to accommodate unprecedented applications — like tourism.
As McKinsey authors Chris Daehnick, John Gang and Ilan Rosenkopf explain, “New companies are constantly entering the market and much uncertainty persists about their ambitions, as well as those of more established players. Forecasts for the number of constellations, and therefore required launch capabilities, thus vary widely.” Additionally, these new constellations will influence demand for services like intersatellite links, ground terminals, analytical support, in-orbit maneuvering and debris removal.
Industry growth aside, Maritime Launch’s Canso site will support the province and its residents, as stated by Nova Scotian premier Tim Houston in a press release: “This is a good day for Nova Scotia — particularly rural Nova Scotia — as Spaceport Nova Scotia will create many jobs, education and partnership opportunities while boosting the province’s economy. We’re proud to be a destination for the growing and competitive global commercial space industry.” Ultimately, the site could represent Canada’s launch abilities to the global space sector and lead to further growth through international collaborations.
Global Ambitions
Maritime Launch is working primarily with Yuzhnoye and Yuzhmash, the developers of the Cyclone-4M (C4M) lift vehicle, which is a two-staged monoblock medium-lift launcher for commercial missions to low Earth orbit (LEO). According to Maritime Launch’s website, Yuzhnoye and Yuzhmash are a key supplier to Europe’s Arianespace Vega rocket and to Northrop Grumman’s Antares launch vehicle for its cargo resupply missions to the International Space Station.
The website further details the Cyclone-4M’s capabilities, including launching a single dedicated spacecraft into precise orbits, or an aggregation of satellites into a constellation. Additionally, “multiple-restart capability of the second stage engine allows deployment to several orbital destinations on the same flight.”
With a license for eight launches of medium-class rockets, Spaceport Nova Scotia plans to collaborate with other companies, too, shared Feierbach. Reaction Dynamics, based outside of Montreal, is one partner that has already been announced. Another is Skyrora, a company in Scotland. If upcoming tests go well, Feierbach said, there’s hope of launching the Skyrora XL from Nova Scotia next year.
“At the end of the day, though, we’ll probably have a maximum of three or so launchers on site — otherwise it can become a bit much. A launch every week isn’t what we or the province were looking for,” explained Feierbach. He chuckled, adding that they can’t launch at the start or end of lobster season, in observance of the fisherman and local economy.
Choppy Waters or Following Seas?
Maritime Launch will be entering an increasingly crowded market, as New Space only continues to expand. “The hard part,” Cáceres explained, “is to attract launch services companies to conduct their launches from the facility when it is completed and to ensure that those launch companies can actually attract a fair amount of payload customers for their services.”
The McKinsey report outlines how launch companies can best place themselves in such a turbulent and fast-paced industry. “The best placed launch companies in this context will pursue strategies that maximize flexibility and cost control,” noted the authors. “This implies design and manufacturing approaches that allow for rapid deployment and scaling of capacity without incurring large fixed or variable costs, and operational approaches that reduce time to launch and associated labor costs.” Safety and reliability will continue to be overarching concerns, they added, and strong customer service in terms of tailoring launch needs could provide an edge if prices remain competitive. Long-term or multiple launch contracts may also attract customers who want more certainty than historic launch-by-launch deals.
Maritime Launch’s optimism appears warranted though, as commercial launches have grown in number and the Canso location offers unique advantages in land space, launch inclinations and global collaborations. “The advent of SpaceX and its ability to perfect reusable launch technology and launch infinitely more per month and per year than anyone thought possible has generated a lot of confidence in the strength and potential of the space industry,” explained Cáceres. “This trend will continue for the foreseeable future.”
Like all new ventures, Spaceport Nova Scotia has its work cut out. Yet its location and focus motivated those involved to deliver on the potential for the site and commercial launches globally. As the space industry becomes increasingly commercialized, Maritime Launch is poised to boost Nova Scotia’s profile, not only within Canada, but around the world and indeed above it. Let the New Space race commence.
This year has witnessed heightened space exploration and related activities, headlined by the American and Chinese government-led Mars rover missions as well as commercial launches by SpaceX, Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin. Among these landmark milestones were less laudable moments that generated concern, most notably criticism regarding the uncontrolled reentry of a Chinese Long March 5B rocket in early May, generating fresh debate among nations and non-governmental organizations about the issue of space debris. While no damage was caused on the ground, a previous Long March 5B rained debris over West Africa.
Re-entering objects by type without human spaceflight. ESA chart.
Outer space, like our oceans, is free from conventional political boundaries and thus requires internationally agreed upon laws. While some policies have been set in place, beginning with the Outer Space Treaty of 1967, others like those regarding our spatial footprint haven’t. As space launches advance at unprecedented rates and per-kilogram launch costs continue to fall, particularly to reach low Earth orbit (LEO), more missions mean more debris. What does this mean for the future of space exploration?
Space debris is defined by NASA as any human-made object in orbit around the Earth that no longer serves a function. As space use for everything from communication and exploration to meteorology and climate research becomes more ubiquitous, debris proliferates accordingly. During the past 64 years of space activity, more than 6,050 launches have resulted in about 56,450 tracked objects in space, according to the European Space Agency (ESA). More than 28,000 of these remain in orbit, mostly in LEO, which NASA has deemed a “space orbital junkyard.” Causes of increased debris are often traced to fragmentation events, which can include satellite and rocket explosions, antisatellite tests and collisions. Douglas Loverro, resident of Loverro Consulting, broke space debris into three categories. The first is the small class; smaller pieces that eventually wear down into even smaller particles and are never catastrophic. The second are larger items that reenter the atmosphere and fall to Earth (concerning, but odds are low of human impact). The last are medium to large items that never reenter the atmosphere, but that collide with other items to create more debris and interfere with current space activity. It’s this last group, Loverro said, that we should be most worried about.
The space debris crisis stands at a turning point. Space debris isn’t like marine debris, Loverro pointed out. There is no bottom of the ocean for junk to sink to — whatever is there now will be there in the future. That said, the situation in space, while not quite catastrophic, has reached a place where “long-term and high rates of environmental remediation, i.e., actively removing space debris from orbit, is the only way forward to ensure the sustainable use of outer space,” explained Stijn Lemmens, senior space debris mitigation analyst at the ESA. The increasing risk of collisions has become such the “norm” for operators during the past decade that designers of new missions are often asked to assess the risk that an impact with an unavoidable piece of debris could have. “The challenge now,” Lemmens said, “is to change our ways now and to treat space a shared resource so we can adopt sustainable practices and ensure that the crisis, which could effectively mean that certain orbital regions can’t be used anymore due to too high levels of space debris, does not unfold decades from now because of inaction today.”
Low Earth orbit (LEO) is the region of space within 2,000 km of the Earth’s surface. It is the most concentrated area for orbital debris. NASA ODPO image.
Responsibilities
The problem has been made clear. But what should be done? And whose responsibility is it to clean outer space? Under the current set of international space laws, each country is liable for the debris that results from their activity and the companies under their jurisdiction. A collaboration between government and industry is ideal for tackling the problem, Lemmens emphasized: “For example, companies can share their operational best practices (like collision avoidance coordination) and be a driver for the implementation of new technologies (like propulsion systems to get satellites out of orbit after the mission).” Countries, on the other hand, have the power to set policy on the minimum requirements to be allowed in space, setting design and operation standards for sustainable practices. In order to hold companies and countries accountable, though, we need some sort of international governing body, like the Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation in 1944 that set the rules of international air travel into place.
Professor Danielle Wood, Director of Space Enabled at the MIT Media Lab, flies on a reduced gravity plane flight with Dr. Ariel Ekblaw, Director of the Media Lab’s Space Exploration Initiative. During the research flight, Space Enabled tested a system to manufacture wax as a non-toxic fuel for satellites in microgravity, part of a research portfolio to develop space technology that is sustainable and accessible. Steve Boxall/Zero-G Corp. image.
Morally, however, the question of responsibility has a more nuanced answer. Space sustainability is also a matter of justice, argued Danielle Wood, MIT assistant professor and director of the Space Enabled research group. “The mission of the Space Enabled research group,” Wood said, “is to advance justice in Earth’s complex systems using designs enabled by space.” There are six types of space technology supporting societal needs, as defined by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. This includes satellite operations, like earth observation, communication, and positioning, as well as microgravity research, technology transfer, and the inspiration derived from space exploration, through both research and education. These technologies, as well as societal development, are all impacted by increasing quantities of space debris. “Space sustainability means, for earth orbit, maintaining a healthy and reasonable number of objects in space and operating in a safe way.” However, it goes beyond that as humans are going to impact places like the Moon, asteroids and even Mars in the future, Wood argued. Nations also have a moral obligation to consider how they’ve already impacted the space environment, holding themselves accountable for the debris that’s already up there. “We should also have a moral responsibility to maintain the pristine geologic and cultural value of places in space for the future,” Wood pointed out, citing the role that celestial spaces play in many indigenous cultures. This means, by and large, that space sustainability must be achievable through more than just environmentally sound practices and healthy political and economic relationships — social equity and moral accountability are crucial, too.
Assessment of the sustainability of a space mission at various stages of its lifecycle is shown above. Images courtesy of the Space Sustainability Rating Consortium (ESA, Space Enabled Research Group within the MIT Media Lab, in cooperation with the University of Texas at Austin, BryceTech and the Forum).
Topical modules, part of the Space Sustainability Rating, are being developed to assess overall sustainability is based on rating systems like LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification for buildings.
To facilitate space launch accountability, the Space Sustainability Rating (SSR) is being developed, with the intention to start serving customers by 2022. “The SSR aims to adopt the current minimum set of practices to avoid a space debris crisis and put in the spotlight those operators that go well beyond this level. It is thus meant to be an inherently positive message an applicant can give to its stakeholders and customer if they pass the rating process,” Lemmens explained. The SSR is hosted by the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) Space Center (also known as eSpace), and its design team comprises of the World Economic Forum, the ESA, Wood’s Space Enabled research team, the University of Texas at Austin, and BryceTech. The concept is based on successful rating systems in other industries like the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification for buildings. The rating process itself begins during the design phase, Lemmens explained, when an applicant fills out a questionnaire to assess sustainable practices associated with the design and concept of the mission’s operations. At this point, a preliminary rating is issued, to be confirmed after launch. As defined in a recent press release from the World Economic Forum, the scores will be based on factors including data sharing, choice of orbit, measures to avoid collisions, and plans to de-orbit satellites. The choice and characteristics of a launch provider could even impact the score, with optional elements, like de-orbiting fixtures, adding bonus points.
ClearSpace-1 Mission: Operational concept of chaser satellite that is able to rendezvous, inspect and capture debris. ClearSpace image.
Aside from encouraging sustainable methods, the SSR process has another large goal: “It is the intention that this will be a public process, as one of the objectives of the rating is to create transparency,” Lemmens said. Additionally, operators and manufacturers will be able to share their level of certification (out of a total of four), further increasing transparency in a sensitive way while incentivizing positive action by all players in the space debris crisis.
Removal
While legal and moral responsibility in the space debris crisis is important, and policy holds a powerful role, the market for technology and an increase in activity to remove debris are also necessary. ClearSpace, a spin-off of EPFL, is already working on this challenge. The company, based in Switzerland, aims to provide affordable in-orbit services to remove non-operational satellites and prevent the future buildup of debris, said co-founders CEO Luc Piguet and chief engineer Muriel Richard. In November 2020, ClearSpace signed a contract with the ESA to launch ClearSpace-1 in 2025, a mission designed to remove VESPA, a part of a European rocket launched in 2013. The mission is the first within the ESA project ADRIOS, Active Debris Removal/In Orbit Servicing. “ClearSpace will lead the development of a chaser satellite that is able to rendezvous, inspect and capture debris which has not been prepared or designed for removal by using a capture mechanism (four robotic arms) and a set of sensors,” Piguet and Richard explained. “Once the object is secured, the chaser will then place the object into a re-entry orbit into earth atmosphere where it will burn up like a shooting star.” As part of this project, ClearSpace is leading a commercial consortium to build the capture mechanism; the consortium includes eight countries (Switzerland, Germany, Romania, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Portugal) and companies like Airbus and OHB Sweden. The company has three objectives to achieve through the ClearSpace-1 mission: “to set up an infrastructure to deliver service, to test technologies, and finally, to bring and demonstrate the feasibility of a breakdown service,” said the co-founders. They added, “Our objective is to reduce the costs of in-orbit servicing and active debris removal. We believe that this is a critical step toward sustainable space operations.”
Toby Harris, Head of Space Situational Awareness at Astroscale UK. Astroscale UK & Europe image.
ClearSpace is not alone in waging the technological battle against space debris. Astroscale, an in-orbit debris removal company based in Japan, has a vision to secure the safe and sustainable development of space for future generations, explained Toby Harris, head of Space Situation Awareness (SSA) at Astroscale UK. “SSA,” Harris said, “is all about building a complete picture of what is happening in space understanding where both spacecraft and space debris are, what they are doing and what they are going to do.” The field is also important for ensuring space safety by making sure spacecraft don’t collide with others or get hit by a rogue piece of debris. Harris’ role is also responsible for considering how Astroscale can contribute to SSA capabilities, like using onboard sensors to provide additional observations and tracking. Astroscale’s in-orbit services include active debris removal (ADR) missions to eliminate existing defunct options like old rocket bodies, upper stages and failed spacecraft. “By removing these larger objects from orbit, the risk of their fragmentation, either from an explosion or collision, is removed, and so are the consequences of such a break-up, including the many small, very high velocity fragments that can destroy other spacecraft,” he added. Astroscale is also looking into end-of-life (EOL) services to make debris removal easier in the future, lessening the risk of creating more debris objects that would threaten future space sustainability. More specifically, the ELSA-d mission was launched in March of this year to test a magnetic docking system on a dummy defunct satellite and to inform the success of EOL missions that utilize prepared commercial spacecraft with a docking plate. “The various sensor payloads onboard the spacecraft will also be examined and tested to understand how different instruments perform and how they might be improved upon in the future,” said Harris. “We’re also considering how sensor payloads could be used in a flexible manner for navigation, understanding how a client spacecraft is moving when nearby, and performing broader on-orbit space surveillance and tracking of potential debris spacecraft.”
Risk
While the space debris problem may be increasing in size, beginning discussions and technology development at this stage allows for proactive change in how missions operate into the future. The problem, though, is unavoidable even if all launches were to stop immediately, Lemmens said. “This is simply due to the amount of space debris already in orbit that will collide among itself and create more, but smaller, debris pieces on orbit.”
This means that in any future scenario, implementing measures to avoid collisions and designing systems to track and remove debris will be important. And, as our space activity is only ramping up as more companies and governments get involved, these actions hold even greater power. Policy implementation will need to take initiative as well, Wood explained, working to remediate the waste stream of past actions, establish just treatment of humans and the environment, and consider the existence of a multi-location society as we explore further with both good governance and equity. While the SSR is a positive step forward, “it’s just the beginning,” she said. “It can’t be the final policy. We’re going to need a multi-faceted approach in the future.”
In terms of technology, the impacts of collisions due to too much debris can already be seen, destroying satellites valuable to Earth for things like global communication or meteorological services. “As space situational awareness systems become better at seeing smaller and more objects, and as satellite systems grow larger, such as Starlink or OneWeb, reducing human unpredictability and congestion in orbits will be essential,” Harris said. “ADR and EOL missions will benefit from improved autonomy together with new developments in robotic capture mechanisms, such as docking plate and robotic arm technology.”
“Another risk,” the ClearSpace co-founders shared, “is that if more collisions occur, entire fields of space may not be usable again, and that would be a legacy we would leave for generations to come.” To combat the debris crises, Piguet and Richard broke the solution into three parts: “The first is making sure that all satellites dispose of self-deorbiting capabilities and are deorbited at the end of their life. Next, is the implementation of transparent information sharing between space stakeholders to allow for effective space traffic management and collision avoidance for live satellites, and lastly, a towing service to remove the failure rates from orbit.”
Simply put, the space debris crisis is one of astronomical size on an astronomical scale. While the severity of potential collisions increases with each new launch, so do the opportunities and motivation to instill positive change before the problem exceeds our capacity to address it. Our activity in space supports that on Earth — as it fills up with debris, becomes more crowded, and the likelihood of collisions increase, technologies that are crucial to the functioning of society (national defense, PNT, weather services, communication, etc.) are put at risk.
Unlike the marine debris crisis, which didn’t see an increase in momentum to clean the oceans until recently, it is early enough to establish common habits to prevent irreversible issues in the space industry down the road. The balance between policy, obligation, and technology is an important one, with each branch playing a role to contain the growing orbital junkyard. As SpaceX and Blue Origin have shown us, space exploration, business, and technological advancement is far from halting and only becoming slowly more accessible to society. If we are to maintain this pace, our pledge to sustainability must keep up, preserving the space environment for generations to come.
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