One Space, Fast Space
Interview with Satellady

Candace Johnson was transported into the world of space at the age of 5, when her father, then working for SHAPE¹ for NATO, based in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, gave her a flying saucer to hang on the Christmas tree. A few weeks earlier, Sputnik 1, the earth's first artificial satellite, had just been launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome.

As a child, she grew up with the conquest of space. Up close. In her school playground talk of Vint Cerf², Irwin Jacobs³, Bill Pugh⁴, JFK, President Johnson... In this exceptional ecosystem, Candace enthusiastically embraced the technological transition underway and anticipated the potential uses of space from an early age. Infinite. Starting with telecommunications. She readily recounts how every Sunday she used to go to the home of one of her parents' friends, Esterley C. “PX” Page⁵, who had a CB radio. Citizen Bands were in their infancy at the time and it's easy to imagine a little girl's fascination when she discovered the power of communicating with remote areas. Her taste for technological innovation was certainly born from this and before she was 10, Candace was convinced that all good things came from space. It was on this premise that she built her career.

After the White House, her father was appointed Commander General of the Pacific Air Force Communication Center. Candace was still at secondary school at the time, and this period left her with a particular attachment to the Indo-Pacific region. Then came military retirement and the move into the private sector. Four children in higher education weighed heavily on his finances in the United States... Western Union Telegraph Company (her father was at the helm for the launch of Westar in 1974, the first domestic communications satellite in the United States), Fairchild Industries and its in-house start-up American Satellite, Vitalink Communications, Telebit, back to Fairchild... From the career path of Johnny Johnson, co-founder of several pioneering American satellite telecommunications companies and a fervent supporter of ethical venture capital, Candace would go on to resolutely retain the strength of private leverage, which she would then apply fully to her own career path.

What is your view of the main issues facing the industry and the way Europe is tackling them?

“I'm against any industrial policy on principle”. That has the merit of being clear and of setting out the debate on free data. “I think that this mentality of grants and government programmes is a problem for Europe. When Galileo was being developed in Europe, I set up a consortium of private investors and we were able to do it for 1 billion. The Commission put 10 billion on the table. Of course, we pulled out, because we weren't going to ask private investors to pledge their money against the EU, which subsequently defended a free approach to access to space data”.

Candace sees a parallel with recent discussions around the new IRIS² space programme. This European programme, which aims to create the EU's first multi-orbit satellite network by 2030, is co-financed by the Commission, ESA and private players. Nearly 300 satellites will make up the constellation. This industrial policy project was originally suggested to Thierry Breton by Airbus and Thales Alenia Space. “At first, the EU and the European Commission were going to pay for everything. Now it's the SpaceRISE consortium made up of Eutelsat, Hispasat and SES that has been chosen by the European Commission to build and operate the constellation. But the same thing could have been achieved by issuing a call for tenders and then buying the services developed by the suppliers. That way, everyone would have been on board from the start, instead of wasting 4 years and a lot of money.” Candace herself has on several occasions been involved in private New Space projects with a commercial focus from the outset. Often well ahead of government projects.

Luxembourg's strategic edge

In the early 80s, when the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg was looking for a fourth economic pillar to take over from its three historical pillars (steel - monetary union with Belgium - broadcasting), space was an obvious choice and Candace was no stranger to it. She was also married to a Luxembourg ambassador. With the help of Candace and her network, the then Prime Minister, Pierre Werner and other visionary astrophiles, the Grand Duchy was able to create the conditions for the creation of SES ASTRA in 1983-1985, the world's first private cross-border television satellite system. 15 years later, Candace became Chief Architect of SES Global, the world leader in satellite communications. As of 2014, Luxembourg occupies an important position in the global space sector (completely disproportionate to its size) and continues its growth strategy by driving the SpaceResources initiative, which attracts several private companies and public initiatives, such as ESRIC, a centre dedicated to research and development related to space resources. The Luxembourg Space Agency has also had the wind in its sails for several years, and today the Grand Duchy is the leading investor in Europe, devoting 0.135% of its GDP to the space sector (ranking third in relative terms after the United States and Russia).

SpaceX, LEO, Ka band…

Candace remains clear headed about the main issues facing the sector. “In Europe, we lost 10 years by choosing not to include the private entrepreneurial sector in the European Space Agency's upstream calls for tender. Meanwhile, Space X has advanced at lightning speed. We have some pioneering private companies like PLD Space and Dawn Aerospace that have moved forward on their own and I'm very proud of them”.

On orbital congestion and the current appetite for LEO (Low Earth Orbits), Satellady argues for a broader view of things. “Everyone is now talking about the potential of Low Earth Orbit (LEO). The space spectrum is a precious resource. We need to think about using all the orbits and even using them together, as each orbit can contribute something. Geostationary orbits remain very reliable. Using the Ka-band by beam, in a focused way, is very effective, for example, particularly for island environments, and it is much more resilient when the bandwidth is not shared. There is no loss of bandwidth either. Bear in mind that 70% of the bandwidth is lost when a satellite in low orbit passes over the ocean...”. 

What is the current state of international cooperation?

“It's imperative that we all work together in space. That is our strength. Look at the ISS. Even in wartime. Everyone works together on the International Space Station. We must not allow nations or regions to enter into a silo mentality by pushing a policy of technological sovereignty. We need standards that lead to interoperability between systems”. This issue of interoperability is very specific in space exploration, specifically in everything that will affect the logistics of future manned missions to the Moon (communications system, transport system, refuelling system, etc.). The challenge is to avoid any monopoly. And this is not an issue to be taken lightly.

In her personal journey, Satellady first used Space to facilitate universal public access to technological innovations. Access to television with SES ASTRA in the 80s. Access to telecommunications and mobile communications a little later with Loral Teleport Europe and Iridium. Internet access with Europe Online. Access to launchers with ILS in 1995, which was the world's first joint venture between Russia and the United States, bringing together Krunichev and Lockheed Martin.

Satellady then used space to observe the Earth, the environment and climate change, with a particular focus on high-risk areas.

Today, the scope of her work has broadened. It's all about shaping the networks of the Universe. How can we harness the sun's energy in space? How can we store, transmit and process data from data centres on the moon? How can we interconnect the people who will soon be working ‘as extra-terrestrials’... OneSpace. That's Candace's call. Fast Space too. “Thanks to 3D printing, AI, advances in robotics, new thrusters and materials, we can build launchers, satellites, rovers, much faster, for much less money.”

As she likes to say,

Space for All and All for Space.

I would add Forever if we manage to do it collectively.

OWNSAT/Kacific

In 2012, Candace was contacted by two young women from New Zealand who wanted her help in obtaining space capacity from Australia for broadband internet in their country. Candace replied, “Why go to Australia? Build your own satellite!” A year later, the three of them created OWNSAT (Oceania Women's Network Satellite) with 50 other women from the Pacific and around the world. OWNSAT has since become the main investor in Kacific - kacific.com - which today brings high-speed Internet to schools, hospitals and villages in more than 25 Pacific countries.

1. SHAPE is the acronym for Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe.

2. Vinton Gray Cerf, also known as Vint Cerf, is an American engineer and researcher, co-inventor with Bob Kahn of the TCP/IP protocol. He is regarded as one of the pioneers of the Internet.

3. Irwin Mark Jacobs is an American electrical engineer, co-founder and former chairman of Qualcomm.

4. Bill Pugh served as an engineer with Candace's father, then a Captain in the Air Force, in charge of developing the General Operational Guide for communications. It was Bill Pugh who set the target of 10,000 bits per second for a voice band.

5. Esterley C. Page was one of the pioneering experts in telecommunications and a co-founder of Northrop Page, which later became Northrop Grumman, one of the world's largest space companies.