Millions of pieces of orbital debris big enough to harm satellites but too tiny to track threaten “permanent stability and safety in orbit.” Over the past few years, and especially in the last few months, the issue of space traffic management (STM) has been discussed from the U.S. Senate floor […]
Space Traffic
156 posts
Space Traffic Management (STM) — the identification and deconfliction of potential mission-terminating collisions for operational spacecraft — has gained attention as the population of operational satellites in low Earth orbit has dramatically increased. Operational satellites and their supporting infrastructure must be resilient and responsive to mitigate mission-ending or catastrophic collisions […]
In 1956, a mid-air collision between two commercial planes above the Grand Canyon killed all 128 passengers. The rapid growth of commercial air traffic combined with a lag in air traffic control (ATC) improvements made such a disaster inevitable. Federal budget cuts prevented the government-operated ATC framework from establishing the […]
The funding round was co-led by Initialized Capital and Root Ventures WASHINGTON — Kayhan Space, a startup based in Boulder, Colorado, announced Dec. 14 it has closed a $3.75 million seed funding round. The company developed a space traffic control system for satellite operators to help prevent collisions in Earth’s […]
The term “space traffic management” (STM) inevitably triggers comparisons to air traffic management. It conjures visions of controllers looking at screens and directing spacecraft to maneuver to avoid collisions, much like air traffic controllers do with aircraft. The reality is far different. Defunct aircraft don’t linger in airspace for years […]
WASHINGTON — Senate appropriators, frustrated with the lack of progress by the Commerce Department on space traffic management, are threatening to withhold other funding until it gets detailed plans from the agency. In the report accompanying its version of a commerce, justice and science spending bill for fiscal year 2022, […]
WASHINGTON — Members of the House Science Committee asked the new administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to make more use of commercial satellite data and take action on space traffic management. At a Sept. 23 hearing of the committee’s environment subcommittee, Rep. Frank Lucas (R-Okla.), ranking member […]
WAILEA, Hawaii — The growing number of satellites in orbit is leading to calls to develop formal “right of way” rules, although there is no consensus on what those rules should be and how they should be established. Several close approaches of satellites in recent years, in some cases exacerbated […]