Satellite firms sound alarm as launch slots become scarce amid soaring demand

The past three years have seen an average of 270 orbital rockets per year, a dramatic increase from ten years ago, yet satellite owners are increasingly unable to secure launch capacity. Caleb Henry, director of research at Quilty Space, says the sector is in a state of panic as firms compete for the few available rides. Telesat in Canada has fielded requests to share its eleven Falcon 9 slots, while Amazon’s low-Earth-orbit constellation has slowed satellite production because many of its booked launches remain pending.

AST SpaceMobile identified launch availability as the key bottleneck for its network rollout during a recent earnings call. Projections from the Commercial Space Federation and Analysys Mason suggest demand for thousands of launches annually within a decade, raising concerns that the shortage could worsen over the next two to four years.