According to the AIAA Space Logistics Technical Committee, space logistics is However, this definition in its larger sense includes terrestrial logistics in support of space travel, including any additional "design and development, acquisition, storage, movement, distribution, maintenance, evacuation, and disposition of space materiel", movement of people in space, and contracting and supplying any required support services for maintaining space travel.
History
spoke of the necessity of space logistics as early as 1960:
Background
James D. Baker and Frank Eichstadt of SPACEHAB wrote, in 2005:
A snapshot of the logistics of a single space facility, the International Space Station, was provided in 2005 via a comprehensive study done by James Baker and Frank Eichstadt. This article section makes extensive reference to that study.
ISS cargo requirements
, the United States Space Shuttle, the Russian Progress, and to a very limited extent, the Russian Soyuz vehicles were the only space transport systems capable of transporting ISS cargo. However, in 2004, it was already anticipated that the European Automated Transfer Vehicle and Japanese H-IIA Transfer Vehicle would be introduced into service before the end of ISS Assembly. As of 2004, the US Shuttle transported the majority of the pressurized and unpressurized cargo and provides virtually all of the recoverable down mass capability.
Cargo vehicle capabilities
Baker and Eichstadt also wrote, in 2005:
Commercial opportunity
Baker and Eichstadt also wrote, in 2005:
Rack transfer capability
Baker and Eichstadt also wrote, in 2005:
Recoverable reentry–pressurized payloads
Baker and Eichstadt also wrote, in 2005:
Mixed manifest capability
Baker and Eichstadt also wrote, in 2005:
Propellant transfer
Baker and Eichstadt also wrote, in 2005:
Downmass
While significant focus of space logistics is on upmass, or payload mass carried up to orbit from Earth, space station operations also have significant downmass requirements. Returning cargo from low-Earth orbit to Earth is known as transporting downmass, the total logistics payload mass that is returned from space to the surface of the Earth for subsequent use or analysis. Downmass logistics are important aspects of research and manufacturing work that occurs in orbital space facilities. For the InternationalSpace Station, there have been periods of time when downmass capability was severely restricted. For example, for approximately ten months from the time of the retirement of the Space Shuttle following the STS-135 mission in July 2011—and the resultant loss of the Space Shuttle's ability to return payload mass—an increasing concern became returning downmass cargo from low-Earth orbit to Earth for subsequent use or analysis. During this period of time, of the four space vehicles capable of reaching and delivering cargo to the International Space Station, only the Russian Soyuz vehicle could return even a very small cargo payload to Earth. The Soyuz cargo downmass capability was limited as the entirespace capsule was filled to capacity with the three ISS crew members who return on each Soyuz return. At the time none of the remaining cargo resupply vehicles — the Russian Space Agency Progress, the European Space AgencyATV, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency HTV — could return any downmass cargo for terrestrial use or examination. After 2012, with the successful berthing of the commercially contractedSpaceX Dragon during the Dragon C2+ mission in May 2012, and the initiation of operational cargo flights in October 2012, downmass capability from the ISS is now per Dragon flight, a service that is provided by the Dragon cargo capsule routinely. An return capsule tested in 2018 called the HTV Small Re-entry Capsule could be used in future HTV flights. The HSRC has a maximum downmass capability of. Nine additional Dragon cargo resupply flights are scheduled to depart the ISS with downmass in the next several years.
