Summer is coming and for one year only, the SATELLITE show moves from its customary March position to the start of May. It promises to be an event rich in discussion, as the industry looks to position itself for a prosperous future.
Natalya Bailey, CEO of Accion Systems, believes constellations will be one of the main talking points. “I suspect a lot of people will be talking about Amazon and Jeff Bezos’ plans with respect to smallsats. Project Kuiper sounds very intriguing.”
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Khalid Balkheyour, CEO of Arabsat, expects discussion about nervousness surrounding major capex investments. “The industry needs to change and reinvent itself once again to survive and thrive. The coming period will be painful for some but an opportune time for those who survive and come stronger.”
Ko Ogasawara, VP at MHI, believes space environment protection and debris could be a main discussion topic. “As formation of constellations of a huge number of satellites becomes more real, there is an increasing concern over collisions of orbiting satellites.”
Tim Farrar, President of TMF Associates, believes the key question is not whether we can build new satellite constellations, but whether the market is big enough to justify doing so. “In the next five years, it is likely that new entrants will be less disruptive than many expect, just like Iridium and Teledesic didn’t fundamentally change the satellite industry 20 years ago.”
Balkheyour concluded: “The satellite industry has proven over and over again that it is a resilient industry which offers certain advantages that no other means of communication can. This industry might get sick but it will never die.” VS
