By Hugh Taylor and Marc Feldman
Sometimes, the most important stories unfold right before our eyes—but an exciting distraction keeps us from noticing.
As Starlink and Amazon Kuiper launch thousands of satellites into orbit to form expansive constellations, it’s easy to be awestruck by the sheer scale and audacity of the effort. And indeed, it is impressive. These efforts represent extraordinary innovation and technological triumph.
But for space industry veteran Dave Barnhart, CEO of Arkisys, a more pressing question looms: How will Starlink and Amazon manage the inevitable maintenance and logistical challenges as their constellations age?
Barnhart’s perspective is rooted in decades spent at the forefront of space operations and technology. In addition to teaching at USC and founding its Space Engineering Research Center, he has served at the Air Force Research Laboratory, managed advanced programs at DARPA, and co-founded Millennium Space Systems, now a Boeing Company. His experience makes him uniquely qualified to speak on the industry’s shift toward orbital logistics-based operations.
“We’re entering a new arena with Kuiper and Starlink,” Barnhart explained. “It’s no longer about a single satellite. Now we’re talking about entire constellations, where maintenance and support are critical to success. You have to operate the entire ring continuously to maintain 24/7 contact coverage. It’s a very different model from GEO, where three satellites can cover the globe. In LEO, thousands of satellites are needed to maintain line-of-sight coverage—many of them playing redundant roles for failover protection.”
The rise of satellite constellations can open the door to a broader conversation about space logistics, according to Barnhart.
“Most likely, satellite constellation operators have contingencies when any of the satellites in the chain break down or fail early. The easiest is either to move in a spare (that was previously launched but dormant) or to launch new ones. But what if they could repair or maintain the potential data or imaging holes in the constellation faster or potentially at lower cost than replacing them?”
For Barnhart, this line of questioning is more than a matter of operations—it marks a cultural inflection point.
“For almost 70 years, space missions have been one-way—‘fire and forget.’ If a satellite failed, we just launched another. That worked when we had a few hundred in orbit. But with constellations, we’re moving beyond that paradigm. With today’s scale and technological capability, we can refuel, repair, or even repurpose satellites in orbit. It’s not just good engineering—it’s smart business. Why throw away valuable assets when you can augment or extend their life and maximize ROI?”
To illustrate, Barnhart offers a real-world scenario:
“If you have a 4,000+-satellite constellation, which is where we are heading with Starlink and Kuiper, and 1% go bad every year, that’s roughly 40 potentially hazardous objects in orbit every year. Over time, you could have hundreds of them. Besides legal liability, you’d have to keep launching replacements—unless you can upgrade or service them post-launch. Why not become good stewards of space and extract more value from the original investment at the same time?”
Arkisys is tackling this very challenge. The company has developed a modular, commercial in-orbit Port—a long-duration, reusable platform designed to support satellite services and servicing post-launch. Much like an Earth-based seaport, Arkisys’s Port Modules allow for hosting new technologies for test and validation, along with repair, refueling, and upgrading of spacecraft post-launch. They also enable new services, such as de-orbiting and payload augmentation.
“We’re building the infrastructure to shift space operations from a throwaway mindset to one of maintainability,” Barnhart said.
The need for space logistics will likely grow as satellite constellation use cases expand and new technologies for connectivity, on-orbit manufacturing, and assembly blossom.
“Imagine your phone call or internet service seamlessly transferring between Verizon and AT&T,” Barnhart said. “You don’t notice, but the networks are automatically interlinked through space. This is one new example of how long-duration logistics platform could host ‘routers’ that enable global interconnectivity across constellations. This kind of interoperability will be essential as space infrastructure matures.”
As Barnhart sees it, the space logistics industry is still in the early evolution—but the moment to act is now.
“We’re at a unique inflection point. The companies and countries that recognize this and invest early will become leaders in markets that haven’t even been discovered yet. At Arkisys, we want to help them be the first to sail into these new orbital harbors.”
Photo: Pexels.com