Sharing is caring (10/4/2022)

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In today's newsletter:🎙️ Pathfinder #0019📝 Constellation report🔁 On the move

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Pathfinder #0019, featuring Chris Kemp

Pathfinder is back on the rocket beat, and today, we’re getting a much-needed company update from Astra ($ASTR) CEO Chris Kemp. Today’s episode is brought to you by SpiderOak Mission Systems. Take the Payload/SpiderOak survey here.

The backstory: Astra's first launch of NASA’s TROPICS satellites ended in failure this summer. Shortly thereafter, Astra scrapped all flights for 2022 and accelerated its pivot to a larger, more capable launcher. As it moves customer payloads to the Rocket 4.0 manifest, Astra says it will launch scientific spacecraft for NASA that are comparable to TROPICS payloads.

All the while, shares of Astra have been in free-fall: $ASTR is -90% YTD. Chris still sounded a confident tone, saying the company has the cash to get to Rocket 4.0. Plus, “we have a tremendous number of assets sitting behind me that we've been using our balance sheet to fund,” he told us.

A sneak peek at our other questions:

• When will Rocket 4.0 fly?

• How did Astra’s Silicon Valley DNA—it literally started in a garage—help the company?

• How does one reconcile the pressures of being public with rockets’ lengthy development cycles?

• Could Astra Spacecraft Engine sales sustain the company through 4.0 commercial flights?

• What resources, if any, is Astra devoting to in-space services?

• If Astra’s future as an independent company were in doubt, would a sale or merger be in the cards?

• Where does Chris see Astra 12 months from now?

There’s more, but we’ll leave it to you to check out the full podcast at your leisure.

Where to get Pathfinder #0019

📱 Watch on YouTube🎧 Listen on Spotify🍎 Tune in on Apple

It’s a megaconstellation’s world; we’re just living in it

It seems like every agency in Washington is taking a closer look at satellite constellations these days. That extra attention may lead to new hoops for satellite operators to jump through.

Last week, the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report on megaconstellations. GAO noted that new, growing fleets of satellites drive direct value back to Earth, from geolocation to connectivity services. But they also have negative externalities. GAO highlighted three:

1. A build-up of orbital debris

2. Upper atmospheric emissions

3. Disruption to astronomy

The findings

GAO concluded that scientific understanding of launch emissions and their effect on the atmosphere is minimal, largely due to the lack of observational data. It's time-consuming and expensive to track this information.

The office also established that satellite re-entry fragments may pose risks to humans, but that private and public players are actively working to mitigate these dangers.

Lastly, the report looked at the effect on space systems and astronomy, finding that effects on sunlight reflection and radio transmission may be challenging to fully eliminate. The findings also noted potential cultural implications. Sunlight reflected from satellites could alter our view of the night sky and affect some Indigenous groups’ interactions with it, GAO wrote.

"In a few short years, large proliferated systems, with anywhere from dozens to thousands of satellites, have gone from theory to cementing themselves as part of our shared space future,” Luc Riesbeek, space policy research analyst at Astroscale US, told Payload. “For all the benefits they will bring, we need to take stock of the real-world impacts of fielding space systems and launch cadences of these magnitudes.”

GAO provided options for policymakers, rather than handing down recommendations. Those policy options are split into four buckets:

1. R&D—policymakers could support research into new technologies. Darkened satellites and active debris removal are two examples provided.

2. Sharing is caring—Governments could incentivize (or compel) constellation operators to share data more freely and efficiently.

3. Standards, rules, & regs—Licensing could become more standardized.

4. Create org charts—At the national and/or global levels, policymakers could vest more control into a body that mitigates the potential effects of megaconstellations.

“The big takeaway from this report is that there’s still much more work to be done to proactively sustain our collective use of space for the long term,” said Riesbeek.

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In Other News

• L3Harris ($LHX) has agreed to buy a government communications unit of Viasat ($VSAT) for nearly $2B. $VSAT traded up ~27%, while $LHX closed Monday +4.6%.

• SpinLaunch completed its tenth suborbital yeet flight test, launching payloads for NASA, Airbus, Cornell, and Outpost.

• Polaris Dawn will fly no earlier than March 1, 2023, commander Jared Isaacman told WaPo’s Christian Davenport yesterday.

• The BBC used satellite imagery to expose deforestation by a British power plant operator that claimed to use only sawdust and waste wood as fuel.

• Beijing is launching astronaut recruitment drives in Hong Kong and Macau for the first time.

• Northrop Grumman named its next Cygnus spacecraft, NG-18, the S.S. Sally Ride after the first American woman to fly in space.

• Pyongyang test-fired an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM), which reportedly flew over Japan.

The View from Space

BlackSky stitched together several satellite images taken over Ft. Myers, FL, in the wake of Hurricane Ian. The images were taken at 2:41pm EST on Sept. 29, 2022.

A day later, Planet snapped this image of nearby Charlotte Harbor: