Electronic Components, Launch Availability Seen as Smallsat Bottlenecks, NSR Says

The expected small satellite boom will stress different parts of the satellite infrastructure ecosystem, a Northern Sky Research analyst blogged Tuesday. NSR said manufacturing hurdles related to finding sources of space-approved components and materials mean electronic systems and subsystems are likely to be "considerable bottlenecks," while the launch industry is similarly expected to be a big bottleneck for the next decade. It said given the increasing danger of collisions in space, "rigorous" international regulations are needed to cover everything from prelaunch notification and in-orbit maneuver tracking to right-of-way evaluation, end-of-life disposal and re-entry.