A Little Satellite History

Having a long and satisfying career in the satellite business, I though I'd share a little satellite history.

Origins of the Satellite Business

On March 4, 1957 the first ever man-made satellite Sputnik 1 was lifted into orbit by the Soviet Union, shocking the world and triggering the Space Race. And on May 25, 1961 JFK proclaimed America's goal of landing a man on the Moon and return him safely to the Earth. The high-stakes cold war quest to the moon captured the world's attention and imagination, and the domain of space suddenly opened as a new frontier.

This dawning of a new space age unleashed a whole new set of unimagined possibilites. A new branch of the aerospace industry, the business of designing and building satellites, was born. Putting man-made machines high above the atmosphere, orbiting the planet, kicked off a technological transformation that is still unfolding today. A myriad of satellite applications began to emerge: global communication, weather forecasting, television broadcasting, scientific data collection, earth imagery, signal intelligence gathering, environmental monitoring, global positioning, deep space exploration. Literally the sky was, and still is, the limit.

In the early years, building and launching satellites meant taking on big risks and high costs. Satellite and rocket research and development was sponsored solely by government agencies, such as NASA and DOD, or intergovernmental telecommunication consortiums. Big government contractors such as Boeing and Lockheed, with guaranteed government funding built the new highly complex first generations of satellites and rockets.

By the 1980's a new wave of growth in the world's economy was being driven by smaller, cheaper, faster computers and electronics, and powerful software. But not so much in the satellite business. Why not? The potential that new technology could bring seemed obvious; but the space industry had become conservative, very slow to change. The result was that satellites were getting bigger, more complicated, more costly, and built with increasingly outdated computers and electronics.

The high costs and giant risks had created a dilemma in the satellite business. The extreme expense along with the fact that any failures were considered catastrophic, conflicted with the need to modernize and take advantage of new technologies. To minimize chances of a failure, improvements or even simple changes to a satellite or rocket design were difficult to accept or simply rejected as too risky. Bottom line, the space business was hard and unforgiving. Advancements happened, very slowly, very carefully, and at great expense.

Seeds of Small Satellites and Commercial Space

In those days, the notion of an entrepreneurial private space industry and the commercializing of space seemed outrageous, far-fetched, if not impossible. Despite this conventional wisdom there were some visionaries who thought differently. A few even predicted that someday a vibrant new space industry would emerge, producing inexpensive powerful satellites and space related services. The problem was with huge costs and enormous risks, the barriers to entry were extremely high. Space entrepreneurs were few and far between.

Enter DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency, charged with pushing the technology envelope. In 1988 the leadership at DARPA sponsored a program targeting space startups. DARPA funds were to be provided to develop a demonstration constellation of very small experimental communication satellites to be launched on a new small launch vehicle. DARPA's objective was twofold, to assess the concept and feasibility of very small light weight low-earth-orbiting (LEO) satellites for tactical global communications; and to encourage innovation, risk taking and the growth of small startup companies in the aerospace business. Defense Systems Inc (DSI), of McLean VA was chosen to develop seven small communication "Microsats", and Orbital Sciences Corporation (aka Orbital) of Fairfax VA was tapped to launch the Microsats with thier small experimental commercial rocket called "Pegasus".

[By the way this is the same DARPA that, at that exact same time, was developing a wide area packet-switched network, that became the basis of internet.]

In 1989 I was an early career software engineer and lucky enough to land a job at DSI soon after it had won that DARPA contract to build the seven little Microsats. I joined a team of young enthusiastic engineers, eager to prove that small inexpensive satellites could be built and the future commercialization space was achievable. I got my feet wet flight by coding the on-board cold gas propulsion / orbit adjust control software.

We were a small team of no more than a couple of dozen mostly young, smart, hard working engineers. On a tight budget, with an aggressive schedule, we rolled up our sleeves and together got to work. DSI had a high energy startup culture, we worked long hours, were encouraged to cross boundaries and take risks with eyes wide open. Along the way we made quite a few mistakes, causing setbacks and schedule slips. But we learned our lessons, and after many long days and sleepless nights, in the summer of 1991 we delivered the seven satellites, ready to fly, to Edwards Air Force Base in California's Mojave Desert.

Microsat Demonstration

The 12-sided Microsats measured 4" by 19" and weighed just 48 lbs a piece. Each vehicle carried a transponder for real-time relay of radio communications as well as digital storage for storing and forwarding small digital messages. The spacecraft were to have overlapping footprints providing users on the ground long periods of near continuous communications.

On July 17, 1991,  at 39,000 feet over the Pacific Ocean, the Pegasus rocket was dropped off the wing of a retired B52 bomber, free falling for five seconds before igniting. The Pegasus fired up and propelled the seven Microsats into orbit. With great anticipation, the DSI team was assembled ready, eager to demonstrate our 'birds' working in space.

But, as that say space is hard. Not long after launch, it became evident that an anomaly occurred during Pegasus' first/second stage separation. It seemed that the Microsats were lost, and destined for a crash landing in the Pacific. Our close-knit team was heartbroken. The goup that had just been poised to operate system, now disappointed and distraught, was sent home.

Several hours after the failed launch attempt, the U.S. Space Command tracking network unexpectedly picked up eight objects in earth orbit, albeit a very low orbit, far lower than the Microsat planned orbit. The team was quickly reassembled and after several hours of intense effort, Space Command positively identified the seven satellites and the spent Pegasus stage in a low 245 x 192 nautical mile orbit. Some nine hours after launch, telemetry was acquired as the Microsats passed over the main control station at DSI in McLean.

Within a few days, communications with all seven satellites was established. Telemetry from each satellite indicated all systems were operating nominally. The on board attitude control system had stabilized all satellites, and initial transponder experiments were completed between the Washington, DC area and the Marine Air Station, Cherry Point, North Carolina. Unfortunately, the extremely low orbit meant that atmospheric drag effects would cause the satellites' orbit to decay quicky, meaning they would reenter the atmosphere in matter of months.

The original plan had been to demonstrate use of the Microsats over a four year lifetime. Now, with only a few months to operate, the DSI and DARPA teams scrambled to replan. The low orbit meant the satellites' positions had to be adjusted using the on-board propulsion software to move the satellites closer together. During the short timeframe between August 1991 and January 1992 we were able to reposition the satellites and conduct a variety of sytem checks and tests. In the end all of DARPA's technical demonstration objectives were achieved. Just six months after the Microsats launch, over the days January 23, 24, and 25, all seven satellites were destroyed upon reentering the earth's atmosphere. All were still operational at the time.

Aftermath

The concepts proven by DARPA and DSI's Microsat satellite experiment soon took hold and the small satellite business gained traction. By turn of the new century, multiple commercial LEO satellite constellations were being deployed starting with Orbital's 30+ ORBCOMM satellites, followed by the Iriduim network of 66 satellites.

Fast forward to 2023. The titans of industry have taken notice and the newest generation of LEO satellites contellations are here, poised to truely be tranformative.

As of November 2023, Elon Musk's SpaceX Starlink global high speed internet service is operational, having deployed to orbit neary 5,500 LEO satellites with plans for nearly 6000 more. Elon has stated that his total investments in Starlink would reach between $5 billion and $10 billion before the venture achieves positive cash flow, and over the lifetime of the project, the total investment could run to $20-$30 billion.

Jeff Bezos' Amazon and its Project Kuiper also have big plans to provide inexpensive global high speed broadband from satellites in low earth orbit. Amazon's satellites will begin to be deployed in early 2024, with a plan for a constellation of 3,236 satellites in low earth orbit. Amazon is investing $10 billion in its Project Kuiper

Back in 1997 Orbital acquired DSI and I stayed on at Orbital for 30+ years working on numerous challenging satellite programs. Looking back now, it's safe to say that the seeds planted by DARPA and our Microsat experiment are truly bearing unimaginable fruit!