- Cancellation -

The organizers of the 2020 Improving Space Operations Workshop have regretfully decided to cancel this year’s workshop because of the growing uncertainty associated with the ongoing and increasing spread of the novel corona virus.

We apologize for any inconvenience this causes. Please plan on joining us next year for the ISOW, the details of which will appear on the website below.

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From the Editor-in-Chief
Journal of Space Operations & Communicator, a quarterly online publication (www.opsjournal.org), serves as a forum for those involved in the space operations field to communicate with one another in order to share ideas that could improve the way operations are carried out in space. The Journal is a cross-disciplinary scholarly publication designed to advance space communication as a profession and as an academic discipline. The Journal is distributed electronically without charge to users on a global basis. JSOC contains peer-reviewed articles, comments and case notes written by leading scientists, professors, and practitioners in their respective fields of aerospace expertise. The editorial board seeks articles that demonstrate exemplary academic research of emerging trends in space technology and space operations fields.

The current issue is dedicated to Satellite Constellations, a phenomenon of space operations and applications ever-evolving. The talk of 2019 has been a new kind of space race. SpaceX has already launched the first satellites of its Starlink constellation, with a proposed final number of 42,000. Earlier this year, Blue Origin announced its intention to create its own constellation for satellite internet (with more than 3,000 satellites), and OneWeb has already launched the first satellites in its endeavor (about 2,500). Established companies and startups alike are launching large networks of small satellites (generally considered anything under 500 kilograms—in comparison, the Hubble Space Telescope is more than 11,000 kilograms). Cheaper, easier to manufacture, and less expensive to send to space, small satellite constellations collectively cover a much bigger portion of the Earth than standard satellites. Spatial and temporal sampling properties of the science measurements made by constellations are improved by spreading the satellites out around their orbit plane. Global measurements of vertically resolved atmospheric wind profiles offer the potential for improved weather forecasts and superior predictions of atmospheric wind patterns.

Sincerely,
Ronald H. Freeman, PhD
Editor-in-Chief