Space Infrastructure: Foundations for Planetary Exploration

By: Julia Seibert

From Earth, the night skies appear as silent as a tomb. Beyond the pale glow of the moon and some of our planetary neighbours, only the stars suggest the possibility of life elsewhere, their ancient light winking at us from millions of light-years away.

But watch for a little longer, and Earth’s orbit comes alive with activity. Thousands of satellites have made orbit as lively as a schoolyard at lunchtime, their nonstop chatter granting earthlings unbeatable data and communications, without which life would be unrecognizable. Now, as space infrastructure and its importance grow, so does its vulnerability at the hands of space weapons or debris. Can the systems survive?

What is Space Infrastructure?

Infrastructure in space is not unlike that on Earth; it’s a series of systems that serve the needs of society or governments, only that these happen to be in space. While Earth has roads, sewers, and electrical grids, space has navigation satellites, communications systems, weather and climate monitoring birds, and machines designed to spy on a nation’s enemies. Space infrastructure can also include systems that support these satellites, such as the rockets that launch them, ground stations that communicate with them, and – still in development – machines that repair, refuel, or remove them when they go bust.

Key Components of Space Infrastructure

Launch Facilities

To get to work, satellites need to hitch a ride to orbit on a rocket. These days, that’s usually a SpaceX Falcon 9 or one of China’s Long March rockets, though the vehicle for the job often depends on the sat in question. For example, many governmental satellites and telecommunications machines are colossal mountains of tech, designed to scoop up signals from a wide swathe of the globe from faraway orbits. Those need the strongest rockets around. Small satellites, often developed by startups or young companies trying out a new infrastructural service, can be launched on smaller rockets; they might also cram themselves into a larger rocket’s payload fairing alongside other satellites to save on transport costs.

Satellites and Communication Networks

Then there are the satellites themselves, of which there are over 10,000 in orbit (Jonathan McDowell, July 2024). Since the first satellite was launched in 1957 – the Soviet Union’s Sputnik – the machines have taken on a diverse range of shapes, sizes, and purposes. Among the earliest specimens were navigation satellites, which eventually evolved into the constellations we know today: the US’s GPS, Russia’s GLONASS, Europe’s Galileo, and China’s BeiDou. There are also several fleets of satellites – both private and governmental – designed to snap photos of the globe to monitor climate patterns, track natural or manmade disasters, or keep an eye on what adversaries might be up to. The US’s NASA and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) are particularly adept at observing weather, land, ocean, and atmospheric trends with various constellations. Many governments, predominantly the US and China, also have some eagle-eyed satellites that can all but count the hairs on an enemy’s head. The US, which accounts for most satellites in orbit today, also operates satellites designed for missile detection and spying on other satellites from orbit.

Meanwhile, commercial companies like Maxar, Planet, and Umbra – all American – have hundreds of satellites in orbit that can rapidly beam down slightly blurrier snapshots of Earth. Other companies like Rocket Lab, SpaceX, or Airbus offer satellite ‘buses’: platforms complete with propulsion, power, and radiation protection wherein a customer can integrate whatever mission they please. These are particularly popular with the US’s defense branches.

But the biggest chunk of satellites in orbit are communications birds, mostly thanks to Starlink; the internet service, owned by launch giant SpaceX, is responsible for around 6,000 of the satellites active in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) today. Other telecommunications companies like Viasat, SES, or Echostar have giant satellites further out in space, joined by satellite phone operators like Thuraya and Iridium (the latter’s satellites are in LEO). On the governmental side, many countries have sent up at least one or two communications satellites, such as Argentina’s ARGSATs or Turkey’s Türksats, though the US and its military communications satellites once again lead the numbers.

Orbital Platforms

Flying amongst the satellites are two space stations: the International Space Station (ISS), headed by the US, Russia, and Europe, and Tiangong, built by China. These are generally used for scientific purposes, and their astronauts often conduct experiments in physics and study how drugs or bodies react in space. But especially with the ISS, collaborations in spaceflight are often a valuable diplomatic tool, forcing countries to cooperate even if relations are rocky. With the ISS to be deorbited around 2030, commercial companies will build its successor(s) for NASA.

Propulsion, Transportation Systems, and Life Extension

Satellites come with inbuilt propulsion systems that help them dodge debris, adjust their orbits, or even send themselves on a death dive through Earth’s atmosphere or towards a graveyard orbit once their juice runs out. But if it weren’t for the fuel limits, many satellites could carry on for much longer. That’s why a few countries and companies are designing ways to prolong their life, though none of this tech is widespread just yet. One buzzy solution is the space tug: a spacecraft designed to lug satellites around in orbit, preserving the machines’ propellant. This is especially useful for sats headed to faraway orbits, for which they must either pack tons of extra fuel – leaving less room for the mission hardware – or spend months traveling there. Space tugs, like Impulse Space’s Helios, could cut that to under a day. Other companies like Astroscale and OrbitFab are developing ways to refuel satellites already in space. Astroscale also hopes to deal with space debris – which can not only shorten a satellite’s lifespan but endangers the orbital environment – by finding it and hauling it out of orbit.

Surface Infrastructure

All those satellites need someone to chat with back on Earth. They do this through ground stations, which collect and process the signals and disperse them to their recipients. They might also send signals or commands to the satellites. Most of these stations are operated by the governments or companies that own the satellite. However, as commercial satellite numbers have grown, some companies are offering Ground Stations as a Service (GSaaS), which allows customers to use ready-made ground stations instead of building their own from scratch.

Leading Space Infrastructure Companies

Launch Facilities 

• SpaceX, 
• China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC – state-owned contractor), United Launch Alliance (ULA), 
• Rocket Lab, 
• Arianespace

Read also: Top 10 Rocket Launch Companies To Look For in 2024

Satellite Services

• SpaceX/Starlink,
• SES,
• Eutelsat,
• Inmarsat,
• Viasat,
• Iridium,
• Spire Global,
• Maxar,
• Planet Labs

Satellite Contracting

• Lockheed Martin,
• Airbus,
• Northrop Grumman,
• SpaceX,
• Rocket Lab

Orbital Platforms

• Axiom,
• Blue Origin,
• Vast,
• Sierra Space,
• Starlab Space (joint venture between Airbus and Voyager Space)

PropulsionTransportation Systems, and Life Extension

• Impulse Space,
• OrbitFab, Astroscale,
• Firefly Aerospace

Surface Infrastructure

• Amazon Web Services
• Atlas Space Operations,
• Leaf,
• Northwood Space

Read also: Top 15 Space Companies in the World [2024]

The Importance of Space Infrastructure

Space is the ultimate vantage point. From up there in orbit, satellites can keep an eye on any corner of the world and send down signals that reach its recipient in a matter of milliseconds, depending on the orbit. This makes space infrastructure a vital domain for communications, both civilian and military; the US military, for example, has several fleets of communications satellites, while tens of millions of televisions receive their signals from space. More recently, SpaceX’s Starlink revolutionized warfare in Ukraine, providing connectivity for its troops and drones that was so invaluable that the US Pentagon had to pick up the bill when SpaceX wanted out.

But communications isn’t the only reason why governments invest billions in satellites. For one, militaries and confused travelers alike would be lost without their navigation services. Meanwhile, machines designed for imaging the Earth can pick out angles or patterns that cameras down below never could. Some US spy satellites, for example, have a resolution of 10 centimeters per pixel – perhaps even sharper, though details are kept classified. Of course, flying a drone over the area might provide more detail, but these are easily eyeballed by whoever you’re peeking on, and connectivity is a problem, too. Other fleets are tasked with detecting missiles launched from Earth, giving their targets more time to intercept them. Satellites designed to look at the bigger picture, like those monitoring climate patterns, can track storms, fires, and explosions from space to help those on the ground.

Why is Space a Critical Infrastructure?

Considering the importance of these systems, you’d think its satellites would be generally accepted as critical infrastructure; knock a few of them out, after all, and a whole military communications system might go kaput. Critical infrastructure is defined as systems that are vital to the functioning of a country or society – which satellites unmistakably are – and receive extra protection from the state in case of conflict. But in several space-reliant areas including the US and Europe, space is not yet considered a critical infrastructure per se (though some of its systems, like its comms satellites, fall into the communication category, which is already a critical infrastructure).

In the last few years, as the space industry blossomed and its systems rose to the forefront (like Starlink in Ukraine), the critical infrastructure question became a matter of debate in these regions – especially since attacks on satellites are already common. Though physical attacks, which might include the weapons being developed by the US Space Force and China, are rather rare, satellites are particularly vulnerable to cyberattacks, jamming, spoofing, or intercepting data due to their isolation and reliance on wireless connections; plus, limited processing power and bandwidth up in orbit restricts how often or effectively the software can be updated (as described by Sylvester Kaczmarek via The Conversation).

Still, it’s not such a clear-cut case; critics argue that the avalanche of bureaucracy that would accompany space’s classification as critical infrastructure would smother innovation in the sector and that the standard model for critical infrastructure on Earth would not gel with the diverse set of subsectors in the space domain.

 Read also: The Benefits of Space Exploration and Its Importance

Future Prospects for Space Infrastructure

Whether it’s classified as critical or not, space infrastructure is becoming increasingly present in everyday life and national defense efforts – mostly thanks to the burgeoning commercial industry in the US, which other countries are struggling to catch up with. Not only are new technologies being introduced, but they’re also addressing old problems. Take satellites’ vulnerability; instead of sending up a single satellite as big as a school bus into a faraway orbit, the new trend is to deploy constellations of hundreds of smaller satellites in LEO, made possible by miniaturization of technology and sinking launch costs. This way, if one satellite is taken out by, say, a cyberattack or debris hit, the whole system need not go down. As an added perk, you have global coverage at a distance much closer to Earth. The strategy is gaining popularity with commercial and military systems alike; constellations by Starlink and imaging companies Maxar and Planet are leading the effort, while the US Space Force is contracting a group of companies to build a hundreds-strong constellation for communications and missile tracking.

Clever as the strategy may be, it has an Achilles heel: space debris. More satellites mean greater odds of collisions, and efforts to remove the millions of bits of junk whizzing around orbit are only in their testing phases. Bigger chunks, like spent rocket stages, are easily identified and outmaneuvered. But smaller flecks, traveling at speeds faster than a bullet, can still go through your satellite like a hot knife through butter, creating an explosion of new debris. At worst, this can make certain orbits too dangerous for satellites – not to mention any unfortunate astronauts. So as space infrastructure rises to new heights, it must make sure it doesn’t destroy itself in the process.