Is the USAF Leaving Behind Smallsats?
Last month, the venerable Delta II launch vehicle flew for the last time :-(
What will replace it? Well, earlier this week, the US Air Force awarded contracts (Launch Service Agreements, or LSA’s) to three companies to pursue development of future launch vehicles, the New Glenn by Blue Origin, the OmegaA by Northrop Grumman, and the Vulcan Centaur by United Launch Alliance.
But, this is for the future of medium and heavy lift capability in the United States; what about smallsats?
The market, according to various reports over the last few years, is forecast to be somewhere between $30B and $60B by the year 2030! Who’s going to launch them? This is precisely where smallsat launch vehicle startups are coming to the rescue.
Rocket Lab, Vector, Firefly, and Virgin Orbit are pretty well-known smallsat launch services, but there are dozens of other exciting startups around the globe racing to catch-up. Here are a few you may not have heard about.
- Aevum — Provides earth-to-space space delivery services for small payloads
- Leo Aerospace — Dedicated launch service for microsatellites
- i-Space — Developing solid-fueled orbital launch vehicles for smallsats
- Kiwi Orbitals — Clean, low-cost, aerospike rockets
- LinkSpace — Developing reusable launch vehicle technology for orbital payloads in China
- Orbex — Launch services for small, micro and nanosatellites
- PD AeroSpace — Combining “jet combustion” and “rocket combustion” into a single engine
- Ripple Aerospace — Bringing back the “sea-launch” concept with full-force!
