Last night, an American Minotaur 1 carried 29 satellites, almost of them the tiny type called CubeSats, into orbit. Today, a Russian Dneper launcher carried up 32. Interestingly, both launchers are based on retired ballistic missiles.
This isn't just a numbers game. Earth has put up more satellites in two days than in the first four years of the Space Age. We are in a second Space Age - one where college and high school students routinely work on satellite hardware, and a kid with a soldering iron and a credit card can order a satellite kit and become his own space agency. The launch demand is still not being satisfied nearly as cheaply as we'd like: the CubeSats can cost $100,000 to get a single kilogram into orbit. There's major room for improvement.
1 comment:
tchdopm
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