Smallsat Launches Facing Regulatory Uncertainty, Virgin Galactic's DalBello Says

The burgeoning small satellite launch industry sees signs of big commercial demand and increased U.S. government interest, but the federal regulatory structure hasn't caught up, said Richard DalBello, Virgin Galactic vice president-business development and government affairs, at a Washington Space Business Roundtable talk. The regulatory hurdles include uncertainty on oversight of payloads and "pretty archaic" rules for debris mitigation, he said Friday. If even a fraction of the planned small satellite and cubesat constellations end up getting launched, the smallsat launcher business "is going to be a great business to be in," DalBello said. Thirty-seven different entities are developing smallsat launchers, said Tauri Group Managing Partner Carissa Christensen. Given both commercial demand and increased U.S. government interest, DalBello said, "the market is big enough for multiple people to have great businesses." Vector Space Systems expects to be at operational capacity by the end of 2018, Chief Technology Officer John Garvey said. He said the company is trying to build its business around doing a minimum of 12 launches a year to be sustainable. Rocket Lab expects to begin commercial launches by Q2, said Brad Schneider, executive vice president-U.S. operations. "We will survive on well less" than 12 a year, he said. Virgin Galactic expects to begin launcher service by early 2018, and hopes to ramp up to a rate of a couple of launches a month, DalBello said. He said Virgin Galactic's current launch site is in Mojave, California, and it's scouting for a near-equatorial launch site. He said its Long Beach launcher assembly plant is being built for capacity of 24 launches a year.