ISAM

Ezinne Uzo-Okoro, White Office Science and Technology Policy space policy assistant director, said OSTP is working on an implementation plan for its ISAM policy released this spring. She said operators need to continue tech R&D work and make sure civil agencies and DOD are aware of developments. She said OSTP isn’t concerned about midterm party changes in Congress as there has long been continuity across administrations in federal policies regarding issues like orbital debris. Easing International Traffic in Arms Regulations burdens “is a work in progress,” said Uzo-Okoro. “It’s not one that will be solved in the next 18 months.”

While there are "deadlocking issues" at the U.N.'s Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space when it comes to establishing international ISAM norms, "“ there is a space for like-minded nations ... to move ahead," said Jacob Geer, U.K. Space Agency chief of staff. He called the FCC's reducing the window for deorbiting of low earth orbit satellites to five years after mission's end (see 2209290017)"global leadership" that other nations are taking notice of. He said it was a regulatory move that the U.K. could not have taken without the U.S. going first.

There are 103 companies known that are planning to offer in-space servicing, assembly and manufacturing (ISAM) services, with seven operational today, most of them in the U.S., said BryceTech analyst Renata Knittel Kommel. She said annual demand for ISAM services is expected to reach $1 billion eventually, with inspection and mission life extension being particularly likely drivers of demand.

Without affordable, reliable, safe satellite servicing, the projected trillion-dollar space economy won’t happen, said Astroscale Chief Operating Officer Chris Blackerby. Yet customers and revenue streams “are still hard to find,” he said.

Insurers underwriting ISAM are often concerned about the “perceived newness”of the technology being used, as well the complexity of the missions and having sufficient redundancies, said Willis Towers Vice President Rob Scheige. Mitigating those fears involves using heritage technology from known vendors and doing demonstration missions when possible, he said. While some insurers won’t underwrite low earth orbit operations because of a perception of collision risks, orbital debris issues don’t largely play into determining their premiums, he said. Insurers are often focused more on the likelihood of system failure than the probability it will be hit by debris, he said. He said it can be a muliti-year process to convince insurers when doing novel space missions or using novel technology.

Frnace is more than two years into working on an update to its French Space Operation Act, which las out the regulatory framework for space operations, said Florent Lacomba of the Space Safety Office at France’s Centre National d'Études Spatiales, The aim is expanding the technical regulations to limit orbitaldebris generation and provide a rulesfrmework for innovative services such as in-orbit servicing, he said, The update process could be complete by the end of 2023, he said.

CONFERS, which began in 2016 through DARPA and NASA efforts, has seen its private sector membership grow to the point where it no longer needs DARPA funding and CONFERS is becoming independent this fall, said Anita Saplan, DARPA Tactical Technology Office program manager.