Some satellite companies still have an appetite for boutique launch services
Some satellite companies still have an appetite for boutique launch services
一些卫星公司仍对精品发射服务情有独钟
If you ask most satellite companies aside from SpaceX, they will tell you the world doesn’t have enough capacity for launching payloads into orbit. This is despite the blistering launch cadence we’ve seen around the world in recent years, led by SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket. Customers in any sector will, of course, usually welcome competition. Theoretically, competition will lead to lower prices and allow the best to rise to the top. It seems like the customers buying launch services were right. 如果你去问 SpaceX 以外的大多数卫星公司，他们会告诉你，目前全球将有效载荷送入轨道的发射能力依然不足。尽管近年来在 SpaceX“猎鹰 9 号”火箭的引领下，全球发射频率已大幅提升，但这一现状并未改变。当然，任何行业的客户通常都欢迎竞争。从理论上讲，竞争会带来更低的价格，并优胜劣汰。看来，购买发射服务的客户是对的。
SpaceX is dialing back its Falcon 9 launch program, and there is no certainty about when SpaceX’s reusable next-generation super-heavy-lift rocket, Starship, will carry anything to orbit besides the company’s own Starlink satellites. So it’s no surprise satellite operators are cheering the success of a new launch provider. This was especially the case a few days ago, when Germany’s Isar Aerospace reached orbit for the first time with its Spectrum rocket. The launcher delivered a batch of CubeSats to low-Earth orbit from a spaceport in northern Norway, and Isar tasted success after its first test flight ended in failure last year. SpaceX 正在缩减其“猎鹰 9 号”的发射计划，而其可重复使用的下一代超重型运载火箭“星舰”（Starship）何时能为公司自家的星链卫星以外的客户提供发射服务，目前尚无定论。因此，卫星运营商为一家新的发射服务商的成功欢呼也就不足为奇了。几天前，德国 Isar Aerospace 公司凭借其 Spectrum 火箭首次成功入轨，这一情况尤为明显。该火箭从挪威北部的航天发射场将一批立方星送入近地轨道，在去年首次试飞失败后，Isar 终于尝到了成功的滋味。
Isar’s success is good news for Europe’s space sector, eager for a new path to orbit alongside the continent’s incumbent launch providers, Arianespace and Avio. Several European companies are running to catch up with Isar, including another German startup, Rocket Factory Augsburg, and Spain’s PLD Space. The Exploration Company, based in Germany and France, is working on a heavy-lift-class rocket engine. Isar 的成功对欧洲航天业来说是个好消息，因为欧洲一直渴望在现有的阿丽亚娜航天公司（Arianespace）和 Avio 等老牌发射服务商之外，开辟新的入轨途径。目前，多家欧洲公司正竞相追赶 Isar，包括另一家德国初创公司 Rocket Factory Augsburg 以及西班牙的 PLD Space。总部位于德国和法国的 The Exploration Company 也在研发重型运载火箭发动机。
Halfway around the world from Europe, executives at the Japanese-headquartered satellite company Astroscale were awake at 5 am local time on Sunday to watch the live webcast from Norway as Isar aimed for the stars. Just days earlier, Astroscale announced it had signed a deal with Isar to launch a mission as soon as next year. This was the second launch contract Astroscale has inked with Isar. The companies announced a contract in March for the Spectrum rocket to launch a different Astroscale satellite. Astroscale signed these agreements with Isar before the company achieved orbit. 在距离欧洲半个地球之遥的地方，总部位于日本的卫星公司 Astroscale 的高管们在周日当地时间凌晨 5 点就已起床，观看来自挪威的直播，见证 Isar 向太空进发。就在几天前，Astroscale 宣布已与 Isar 签署协议，最早将于明年执行一项发射任务。这是 Astroscale 与 Isar 签署的第二份发射合同。双方曾在 3 月份宣布了一份关于使用 Spectrum 火箭发射另一颗 Astroscale 卫星的合同。值得注意的是，Astroscale 在 Isar 实现入轨之前就已与其签署了这些协议。
Astroscale wasn’t alone in placing early bets on Isar. Government-backed missions from the European Space Agency, the European Union, and the Norwegian and German governments make up the bulk of the company’s launch backlog. Those customers have an interest in helping Isar gain a foothold in the launch market. But Isar Aerospace could not count Astroscale as part of its captive market, so it was noteworthy that an established company selected an unproven rocket to launch two of its most important missions. Astroscale 并非唯一一家押注 Isar 的早期客户。来自欧洲航天局、欧盟以及挪威和德国政府的政府支持任务构成了该公司发射订单的大部分。这些客户有兴趣帮助 Isar 在发射市场站稳脚跟。但 Isar Aerospace 无法将 Astroscale 视为其“专属市场”客户，因此，一家成熟的公司选择一枚未经考验的火箭来执行其两项最重要的任务，这一点非常值得关注。
Astroscale’s business is focused on satellite servicing and mitigation of space junk, a segment of the market that matches well with rockets the size of Isar’s Spectrum for dedicated rides to orbit. Another satellite servicing company, US-based Katalyst Space, launched a spacecraft in July in pursuit of a NASA astronomy satellite falling out of orbit. Like Astroscale, Katalyst required a dedicated launch into a unique orbit to reach its target. It chose the seldom-used air-launched Pegasus XL rocket made by Northrop Grumman. Technical problems prevented Katalyst from rescuing NASA’s aging Swift observatory. Astroscale 的业务专注于卫星服务和太空垃圾清理，这一细分市场非常适合像 Isar Spectrum 这种规模的火箭进行专用轨道发射。另一家卫星服务公司、总部位于美国的 Katalyst Space 在 7 月发射了一艘航天器，旨在追赶一颗正在坠离轨道的 NASA 天文卫星。与 Astroscale 一样，Katalyst 需要通过专用发射进入特定轨道才能到达目标。它选择了诺斯罗普·格鲁曼公司制造的、已很少使用的“飞马座 XL”（Pegasus XL）空射火箭。由于技术问题，Katalyst 未能成功营救 NASA 老化的“雨燕”（Swift）天文台。
One of Astroscale’s missions assigned to launch with Isar Aerospace is ELSA-M, led by Astroscale’s UK division. The ELSA-M spacecraft will capture and deorbit a satellite in Eutelsat’s OneWeb broadband constellation to demonstrate end-of-life servicing. The other is ADRAS-J2, a demonstration mission partially funded by the Japanese space agency that will attempt to grab onto a defunct Japanese rocket in space and remove it from orbit. ADRAS-J2 follows a highly successful demo mission called ADRAS-J that approached and inspected the same Japanese rocket body in 2024. Both missions are key to proving out Astroscale’s capabilities for what it sees as lucrative business opportunities in the satellite servicing market. Astroscale 指定由 Isar Aerospace 发射的任务之一是 ELSA-M，该任务由 Astroscale 英国分部领导。ELSA-M 航天器将捕获并清理 Eutelsat 公司 OneWeb 宽带星座中的一颗卫星，以演示寿命末期服务。另一项任务是 ADRAS-J2，这是一项由日本航天局部分资助的演示任务，旨在尝试抓取并清理太空中一颗报废的日本火箭残骸。ADRAS-J2 是继 2024 年成功完成 ADRAS-J 演示任务后的后续行动，后者曾成功接近并检查了同一枚日本火箭残骸。这两项任务对于证明 Astroscale 在其视为利润丰厚的卫星服务市场中的能力至关重要。
Ars spoke with Chris Blackerby, Astroscale’s chief operating officer, this week to discuss the company’s goals in satellite servicing and its appetite for launch services. We present a portion of the interview below. 本周，Ars 采访了 Astroscale 首席运营官 Chris Blackerby，讨论了该公司在卫星服务领域的目标及其对发射服务的需求。以下是采访的部分内容。
(Image caption: Nobu Okada, chief executive officer of Astroscale Holdings, center, and Chris Blackerby, group chief operating officer, left, and Nobuhiro Matsuyama, chief financial officer, pose for a photograph during the company’s listing ceremony at the Tokyo Stock Exchange on June 5, 2024.) (图片说明：2024 年 6 月 5 日，Astroscale Holdings 首席执行官 Nobu Okada（中）、集团首席运营官 Chris Blackerby（左）和首席财务官 Nobuhiro Matsuyama 在东京证券交易所的上市仪式上合影。)
Ars Technica: You must have been thrilled with the results from Isar’s test flight. What was it like seeing the rocket reach orbit? Ars Technica：Isar 试飞的结果一定让你感到非常激动。看到火箭成功入轨是什么感觉？
Chris Blackerby: It was Sunday morning, 5 am or so Japan time, and I was up watching. They did a fantastic job in everything from the PR side of it, having the chief engineer on there to explain everything. Even just watching them explain through as I was sitting on my couch early in the morning on Sunday, my confidence was growing as I was watching the team explain everything they’d done, all the prep they had taken to get to that point. We’d done a lot of background research. We had teams go out there to do due diligence research at their manufacturing site and talk to a lot of their technical leaders. So we were pretty confident already. Certainly, the launch was incredible. Checking off all the markers, all the milestones, deploying the payloads—it was everything we could have hoped for. Obviously, congratulations to them. But yeah, you’re right. We have two big missions set up on Isar, and we’re excited to see them continue to improve and show success and get to launch with them. Chris Blackerby： 那是日本时间周日凌晨 5 点左右，我起床观看了直播。他们在公关方面做得非常出色，让总工程师在现场解释一切。周日清晨，我坐在沙发上看着他们讲解，随着团队解释他们所做的一切以及为达到这一目标所做的所有准备工作，我的信心也在不断增强。我们做了大量的背景调查。我们派团队去他们的制造现场进行了尽职调查，并与他们的许多技术负责人进行了交谈。所以我们本来就已经很有信心了。当然，这次发射令人难以置信。完成了所有的标记，达成了所有的里程碑，部署了有效载荷——这正是我们所希望的一切。显然，我们要向他们表示祝贺。但你说得对，我们有两项重大任务安排在 Isar 上，我们很高兴看到他们不断进步并取得成功，并期待与他们一起发射。
Ars: Astroscale’s business case seems to require dedicated launches. Rideshare doesn’t really work if you’re trying to launch into a very specific orbit and reach a specific satellite for servicing. Is that correct? Why not go for a launch… Ars：Astroscale 的商业案例似乎需要专用发射。如果你试图进入一个非常特定的轨道并到达一颗特定的卫星进行服务，拼车发射（Rideshare）似乎行不通。是这样吗？为什么不选择……