Established Satellite Companies Feeling 'Deja Vu All Over Again' on Mega-constellations

摘要

Major satellite builders and operators gathered here for the 31st Space Symposium invoked the specter of the 1990s space-telecom bust when asked about potentially disruptive low Earth orbit (LEO) constellations planned by upstarts OneWeb and SpaceX. "Many of us who have lived through the decade of the '90s do have a certain sense of deja vu all over again," Mike Hamel, vice president and general manager of commercial space at Lockheed Martin, said April 14 during the symposium's "Commercial Satellite Mega-Panel" discussion. Hamel was alluding to the large low-orbiting satellite constellations conceived in the 1990s that either never got off the ground or whose companies went bankrupt shortly after the satellites launched. Hamel was perhaps the most optimistic panelist here.