Reducing the Risks of Space
This May and June, SSPI has been engaged in the Reducing the Risks of Space campaign! Not so many years ago, launch and deployment were the biggest risks of putting technology or people into space. Today, space is growing crowded with multiple orbits, massive growth in the number of satellites, and new business ventures from private space stations and fuel depots to in-orbit servicing and operations. They join orbital planes already home to 23,000 pieces of debris larger than a softball, moving at speeds of up to 17,500 mph.
A sustainable space environment for machines and people is a basic condition for the space economy. It is how we will maintain access to orbit and achieve the commercial success the industry dreams of. Until now, the world has relied on treaties and cooperation among business and government to keep space safe. As the value of space grows, that approach is fast running out of runway.
Reducing the Risks of Space has explored policy, law, technology and operations in development now to manage the challenging space environment of the future. It has asked if enough is being done and, if not, how we can motivate greater urgency in finding solutions. The campaign also looked at business models and technology advances that hold the promise of heading off the dreaded Kessler Syndrome that could make low Earth orbit unusable for decades.
Over several consecutive weeks, we have examined this topic in a series of podcasts, panels, videos and articles. You’ll have a chance to re-experience all the content of the campaign throughout this issue of The Orbiter, as well new voices with their own stories to tell on the topic. Reducing the Risks of Space was underwritten by the Space Shuttle Children’s Trust Fund.
Safe Space: Children of the Challenger
In this podcast, we hear a conversation between Elizabeth Evans, Partner at K&L Gates – who joins us to speak about the Space Shuttle Children’s Trust Fund – and Kathryn Lueders, Former Associate Administrator for Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate at NASA (now retired) and a member of the Space & Satellite Hall of Fame.
This podcast is the first episode of the Safe Space podcast series. The series is sponsored by Momentus.
Safe Space: Lost in Space
In this podcast, SSPI Engagement Director Tamara Bond-Williams pays tribute to the men and women who have lost their lives in the history of human space exploration. You can listen to the episode above or watch it in video format below.
This podcast is the sixth and final episode of the Safe Space podcast series. The series is sponsored by Momentus.