The problem of an affordable, responsive, and reliable microsat launch system
(MLS) has bedeviled the small-satellite community, especially in the United States, for decades. Rides
on dedicated vehicles may cost $15M or more, while shared space is hard to find and harder to fit with the
schedules of microsat operators.
Several efforts to build an MLS, generally focusing on cheap expendable launch vehicles (ELVs),
have failed, as did the government’s much-touted Bantam launch vehicle effort in the 1990s. Today,
there are several options, both reusable and expendable, in development, as government agencies and
corporations respond to the growing interest in microsats by trying once again to solve the problem.
In pursuing these efforts, it is instructive to consider why the problem was not solved long ago.
A reliable and relatively affordable MLS, the NASA-developed Scout, was built over four decades ago.
Since then, technological advances should have made duplicating its success a relatively minor problem.
Why has this not been so?
The answers range from the volatile microsat launch market to the fixed costs involved in launch
ranges and safety standards, to the technology itself. This paper examines MLS development efforts past
and present, analyzes the technical and economic factors retarding their success, and offers prescriptions
for the organizations now attacking the MLS problem.
