The Geography of Supply and Single Points of Failure
Where are critical space parts made, and which single sites or firms could stop production?
Chapter summary
the space supply chain is more concentrated geographically than its growth suggests.
Key takeaways
- 1
Many critical parts have one or two qualified sources in the United States or Europe, and several materials have one dominant source in China.
- 2
Setcoin identifies about a dozen single points of failure: sites or firms whose loss for six months would delay programmes across the industry.
- 3
They include rad-hard foundries, III-V cell lines, the few optical terminal makers, the two large US solid motor makers, a single US hydrazine supplier, germanium wafer production, and launch itself, where one company supplies about half the world's launches.
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