Space supply chain gaps: Propulsion, hardened electronics and laser links

WASHINGTON — Despite ongoing efforts by the Defense Department to bolster the space supply chain, government and commercial satellite programs continue to struggle with shortfalls in several critical areas, including on-orbit propulsion, optical communications terminals and hardened electronics, according to industry and Pentagon officials.

The sluggish flow of key capabilities is a drag on Space Force efforts to rapidly transform its space architecture from handfuls of large satellites to so-called proliferated constellations made up of many small satellites, according to David Gauthier, the former head of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency’s commercial space office.

“We find ourselves in a new space race. Companies need to bring new space technology to market quickly, and supply chains are critical to both speed and scale for proliferated architectures,” said Gauthier, now chief strategy officer at consulting firm GXO Inc. “Reliable supply is fundamental for a healthy and vibrant industrial base that enables government space missions.”

Gauthier was speaking last week at the Satellite 2025/GovMilSpace conference on a conference panel with industry and Pentagon officials — including a representative of the Pentagon’s Office of Strategic Capital (OSC) and the Defense Innovation Unit — focused on space supply chain chokepoints. All of the panelists agreed that developmental readiness and the ability to scale production in a handful of capabilities are hampering progress, but that the solutions will be tough to find and implement.

Even just “mapping the supply chain is hard stuff,” Reza Nikfarjam, deputy director of OSC’s Credit Program, told the panel. “It’s a massive undertaking; it’s difficult. It takes a lot of time.”

In one example of just how dire supply problems have been with electric propulsion units, which are used to maneuver satellites in low Earth orbit, Frank Backes, CEO of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite startup Capella Space, said that his company had to undertake an “unplanned” redesign of its spacecraft at one point.

“Not only did we need to redesign for the purposes of staying on orbit, keeping our satellite in the appropriate orbit, the correct altitude to do our mission, but we also had an issue in the sense that the propulsion companies that were available to us around the world became a little bit less reliable,” he said. “So we needed to redesign and go to an environmental system that allowed us to have more than one propulsion supplier to our company, so that we could move toward — and we have now moved toward – continuous manufacturing of our satellites.”

Similar bottlenecks have affected the plans of the Space Development Agency, according to Chris Quilty, co-CEO of consulting firm Quilty Space. He told Breaking Defense on Thursday that the near bankruptcy of Astra Space last year — which in 2021 acquired one of the major producers of so-called Hall Effect Thrusters Apollo Fusion — was a key factor in delaying the SDA’s first operational data relay and missile tracking satellites.

SDA originally planned to begin launching the 158 Tranche 1 satellites in September 2024. The agency then pushed that date to early this year, and just a week ago announced a further delay until sometime this summer. An SDA official confirmed that Astra’s financial problems, and difficulties other electric propulsion companies have been facing in scaling production, have been a factor in the delays. Astra did not respond to a request for comment Friday.

Likewise developmental set backs and troubles in scaling from laboratory to factory production that have plagued the optical communications industry also have contributed to SDA’s difficulties getting Tranche 1 off the ground — an issue highlighted in a recent report from the Government Accountability Office.

One key supplier of laser terminals for SDA prime contractors, German firm Mynaric, has been undergoing a debt restructuring, and on March 11 Rocket Lab announced its plan to buy the firm. Mynaric has been a supplier of optical communications terminals to Rocket Lab.

Nonetheless, Mynaric in a press statement on March 10 said that it fully intends to continue to “ramp up and increase deliveries” of its terminal.

“We are continuing to deliver on our promise to the industry to provide scalable products that meet evolving program requirements, and drive innovation in areas such as multi-orbit constellations. To maintain our industry position, we must continue delivering to existing customers while advancing future applications of optical communications technology,” said Joachim Horwath, Mynaric’s chief technology officer.

Meanwhile, Mark Jenkins, chief space systems officer at Maxar Intelligence, told the Satellite 2025/GovMilSpace panel that obtaining basic electrical and computer components that are able to withstand the rigors of operating in the harsh environment of space is also fraught.

“Some of the technologies that we really rely on are rooted in space-hardened electronics: focal array technology, AI-enabled processing, …  attitude, determination, control systems. Those are big drivers in what we can produce and how long we can produce, or when we can produce it, which really drives to lead times. However, we’re currently faced with a situation where there’s a lot of competition out there for some of these components,” he said.

While there is a widespread understanding among both suppliers and buyers about many of the problems, what remains unclear are pathways for fixing them.

Jenkins said that although “there are no silver bullets,” one thing industry could do better for itself is for each company to identify upfront what critical components it needs and where to find them, as well as to to figure out “where are we sourcing our overall materials.”

Another solution, he suggested, could be for the US government “to establish strategic reserves of key critical materials like helium, xenon and other items for propulsion systems.”

Nikfarjam explained that the OSC is working on providing capital to companies working across 31 critical supply chain baskets related to defense, including in the space domain, to help built up the domestic supply chain.

“Space launch, spacecraft and space-enabled services are three areas that are obviously directly related to space, but also advanced manufacturing, micro-electronics, solar panels, battery storage, [and] additive manufacturing,” he said.

The OSC Credit Program earlier this year made available a total of “about a billion dollars in direct lending,” Nakfarjam said.

Fletcher Franklin, a senior program manager at market analysis firm BryceTech, told Breaking Defense on March 14 that the US “at a really interesting point in time with the supply chain” related to space.

“I think the one thing that everyone agrees on is there are pain points and there are challenges,” he said.