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SpaceWorks Enterprises, Inc. (SEI) will be releasing the 10th, and final, edition of its annual nano/microsatellite market forecast.  The report is available in presentation form as a free download here . The following provides information regarding the contents, and more.

SpaceWorks celebrates 10 years of the Nano/Microsatellite Market Forecast and turns their focus towards what lies ahead in the 2020s, SpaceWorks is also taking time to look back. This year’s forecast is filled with insights, both into the events that birthed that small satellite revolution, and the trends that promise to drive market growth in the future.  
 
As for 2020, SpaceWorks analysts project between 298 – 369 nano/microsatellites (1 – 50 kg) will launch globally as the industry seeks to rebound from a down-year in 2019. Successful fundraising efforts in the emerging IOT/M2M segment and a growing degree of diversification within the Earth Observation and Remote Sensing segment are both expected to contribute to industry growth in the near-term. Long-term, projections indicate as many as 2,400 nano/microsatellites will require launch in the next five years.  
 
A key observation from this year’s forecast is that satellite sizes in the nano/microsatellite segment are continuing to grow. The average satellite size has grown from <5 kg in 2015 to 7 kg+ in 2019 (an increase of over 30%). This trend is expected to continue in the near-term as operators find ways to capitalize on competition in the manufacturing and launch segments. 
 
“With increasing competition in the manufacturing and launch segments, operators have more choices than ever before. We’re starting to see the impact of this ‘buyers’ market’ with operators moving towards larger form-factors that have historically been cost-prohibitive,” says Stephanie DelPozzo, Economic Analyst at SpaceWorks. “As operators try to strike the balance between capability and affordability, the number of microsatellites and larger nanosatellites (6U+) is expected to increase.”  
 
Overall, the report finds that annual nano/microsatellite launches have grown at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11% over the past 5 years. SpaceWorks estimates the market to grow in the future at a CAGR of 12% over the next 5 years.  
 
Since 2011, SpaceWorks has published the Nano/Microsatellite Market Forecast every year as a service to the small satellite community. With the release of this special 10th anniversary edition of the Nano/Microsatellite Market Forecast, SpaceWorks is also announcing that this report will be its last.   
 
“As SpaceWorks continues to strive to be the number one strategic resource for executives and investors across the space industry, we have made the conscious decision to move to a more continuous model of content delivery. This new approach will allow us to better respond to changing market dynamics and customer interests,” says Caleb Williams, Lead Economic Analyst at SpaceWorks. “Rest assured, our new online platform, SpaceWorks Insights, will feature plenty of interesting analysis on the small satellite industry, but also include new markets and topics such as satellite servicing, the future LEO economy, orbital debris, and much, much more.”
 
 

Rocket Lab has successfully launched their dedicated ‘Birds of a Feather‘ mission carrying a top secret payload for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), with the smallsat lifting off from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 located on the Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand, the 11th Electron rocket launch for the company — the mission was designed NROL-151 by the agency.

An Electron rocket lifts the NROL top secret smallsat to orbit.

Photo is courtesy of Rocket Lab.

The NRO competitively awarded this contract to Rocket Lab under the Rapid Acquisition of a Small Rocket (RASR) contract vehicle. RASR allows the NRO to explore new launch opportunities that can provide a streamlined, commercial approach for getting small satellites into space.

The CEO of Rocket Lab, Peter Beck, using the firm’s Twitter account, confirmed that the NRO payload was successfully released into orbit and that such was a proud moment for the entire company launch team.

The Rocket Lab Electron launch vehicle boosting the National Reconnaissance Agency’s top secret smallsat to orbit.

Photo is courtesy of the company.

Rocket Lab has been launching to orbit since January 2018 and is, according to the firm, now the world’s leading dedicated smallsat launch provider, adding that the firm remains the only launch provider capable of meeting the rapid-acquisition and launch requirements of dedicated smallsat missions for the U.S. government. Rocket Lab has delivered 47 satellites to orbit on the Electron launch vehicle, enabling operations in space debris mitigation, Earth Observation (EO), ship and airplane tracking, and radio communications.

Rocket Lab’s Senior Vice President – Global Launch Services, Lars Hoffman, said prior to the launch that the Electron vehicle is uniquely placed to deliver the kind of frequent, rapidly-acquired launch opportunities required by the NRO and other government agencies to ensure resiliency in space.

He noted that the company is honored that Rocket Lab was selected as as the launch provider for this dedicated mission. The Electron launch vehicle is perfectly positioned to provide the kind of rapid and responsive access to space that puts the NRO in complete control over their own launch schedule and orbital requirements. As the industry shifts toward the disaggregation of large, geostationary spacecraft, Electron enables unprecedented access to space to support a resilient layer of government small satellite infrastructure.

On December 19, 2019, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved the application¹ of Space Exploration Holdings, LLC (SpaceX) to further modify their previously authorized 4,425 non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) fixed-satellite service (FSS) satellite constellation using Ku- and Ka-band spectrum.

Specifically, the agency has now authorized SpaceX to increase the number of orbital planes authorized for operations of SpaceX’s satellites at the 550 kilometer (km.) orbital shell, to reduce the number of satellites in each orbital plane and to reconfigure existing satellites in its constellation accordingly.  In doing so, the FCC denies petitions to deny or defer SpaceX’s application³.

Grant of this application will allow SpaceX to accelerate the deployment of their satellite constellation to deliver broadband service throughout the United States, especially to those who live in areas underserved or unserved by terrestrial systems.

On April 26, 2019, the FCC’s International Bureau (Bureau) granted SpaceX’s request to modify its initial authorization and allowed SpaceX to: (1) reduce the number of satellites in the constellation from 4,425 to 4,409; (2) operate 1,584 satellites previously authorized to operate at an altitude of 1,150 km. at the lower altitude of 550 km.; and (3) make related changes to the operations of the satellites in this new lower shell of the constellation.

To read the entire FCC’s Order and Authorization, please access this infolink for the PDF document…

¹Space Exploration Holdings, LLC, Request for Modification of the Authorization for the SpaceX NGSO Satellite System, IBFS File No. SAT−MOD−20190830−00087, filed August 30, 2019 (SpaceX Second Modification Application).

²See Space Exploration Holdings, LLC, Application for Approval for Orbital Deployment and Operating Authority for the SpaceX NGSO Satellite System, Memorandum Opinion, Order and Authorization, 33 FCC Rcd 3391 (2018) (SpaceX Authorization).

³Petition to Defer of SES Americom and O3b Limited (filed Oct. 15, 2019) (SES/O3b Petition); Letter from Nickolas G. Spina, Counsel to Kepler Communications, Inc., to Marlene H. Dortch, Secretary, FCC (filed Oct. 15, 2019) (Kepler Letter).  Kepler’s Letter comprises (1) a petition for reconsideration of the SpaceX First Modification Order (as defined in n.4 below) (Kepler Letter, Recon Petition) (2) a petition to defer or deny this SpaceX Second Modification Application (Kepler Letter, Second Mod Petition), and (3) a petition to defer or deny SpaceX’s request for special temporary authority to launch its second tranche of satellites (Kepler Letter, STA Petition).

Satellogic has received $50 million in funding from new and existing investors — this announcement comes on the heels of Satellogic’s $38 million Dedicated Satellite Constellation (DSC) agreement with ABDAS to deliver access to a dedicated fleet of satellites providing them with high-resolution geospatial insights that will contribute to the monitoring of agriculture over the Henan Province in China and strengthen governmental decisions.

Existing investors, including Tencent and Pitanga,

Artistic rendition of a Satellogic satellite.

Image is courtesy of the company.

contributed approximately 40% of the $50 million in newly announced funding, with some existing investors requesting more than their pro rata share. The remaining capital comes from a number of new financial and strategic investors, including the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), through IDB Lab, the innovation laboratory of the IDB Group.

Pitanga, also based in the Latin American region, invests in innovative companies with high growth potential and is among the existing investors contributing to Satellogic’s newly announced funding.

Satellogic recently closed a $38 million agreement with ABDAS, a data science company established under the technical support of the Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth. The agreement gives ABDAS access to a Dedicated Satellite Constellation and geospatial analytics that will provide them with multi-spectral imagery for monthly remapping of sites they define within their departmental territory and derive insights through their in-house data science capabilities. Through the partnership, ABDAS is able to leverage their constellation to strengthen and support key policy decisions in the province, with no capital outlay and no technical or operational risks.

Today, less than one-third of the countries in the world have their own satellites orbiting the Earth, limiting their ability to capture data about their policy implementation and infrastructure. However, that landscape is changing. One recent report valued the geospatial analytics market at $19.59B in 2018 and predicted that it will reach a value of $29.28 billion by 2024. In this report, government interest was noted as a key driver of growth. New investor, IDB Lab, sees an opportunity for Satellogic to have a meaningful impact in Latin America and the Caribbean in particular. IDB Lab’s financing will be specifically directed toward Satellogic’s development of user-end satellite imagery solutions in these sectors.

Tomás Lopes Teixeira, Senior Investment Officer at IDB Lab, said the company’s mission is to leverage innovation toward inclusion in Latin American and the Caribbean. The firm is excited to support Satellogic’s mission of democratizing access to geospatial analytics solutions, such as monitoring crop growth and preventing the spread of plagues in agriculture to help increase yields and livelihoods of a vast universe of small and medium-sized farmers caught in a low-productivity cycle in the region; improving the reaction time and accuracy in natural disaster response, which typically disproportionately impacts vulnerable populations; and preventing deforestation.

Fernando Reinach, Partner, Pitanga Fund, added that as an investor that has continued to support Satellogic through multiple phases of growth and development, the company is excited to see the market dynamics shift toward what our team has been building since 2010. Governments and industry alike now recognize the power of geospatial analytics and Satellogic is a proven partner. When choosing where to invest and reinvest, Pitanga seeks to fund companies that have the potential to be disruptive and capture a significant portion of large markets in a short time. In this regard, Satellogic is the perfect archetype of the Pitanga portfolio.

Satellogic Founder and CEO, Emiliano Kargieman noted that the company is experiencing significant commercial momentum and the firm is grateful to have investors that want to fuel that growth and help Satellogic service the demand for the company’s Dedicated Satellite Constellation (DSC) and Dedicated Satellite Services (DSS) solutions. Given the commercial success with Satellogic’s DSC bookings and pipeline, in particular, the firm is fortunate to be in a position to use that cash flow to better leverage investor capital in executing the company’s business plan.

Spaceflight successfully executed nine missions during 2019, the most rideshare launches the company has performed in a single year, representing a 300 percent growth from the previous year.

The Spaceflight SSO-A mission aboard a SpaceX Dragon launch vehicle.

The company ended last year with its historic dedicated rideshare mission, SSO-A, and continued to execute many more firsts during 2019. This includes the most recent accomplishment of manifesting and managing three rideshare launches in one week on three continents.

The final missions of 2019 were SEOPS-2 (ISS SpX-19/NG-12) launched in the U.S., RL-2 (Rocket Lab’s “Running Out of Fingers”) launched in New Zealand, and PSLV-C48 launched in India.

The nine missions in 2019 were executed across four different launch vehicles, including the ISRO PSLV, SpaceX Falcon 9, Rocket Lab Electron and Northrop Grumman Cygnus. Spaceflight managed the launch and integration services of nearly 50 spacecraft from customers in Japan, Israel, Switzerland, Egypt, Australia, Mexico and the U.S., representing both commercial and government organizations, growing constellations, the first commercial lunar lander, technology demonstrations, university spacecraft, and more.

Other important milestones for Spaceflight during 2019 included:

• The first-ever rideshare mission to Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO), launching the first privately funded lunar lander, developed and operated by SpaceIL. (GTO-1)
   
• The execution of its first three missions with Rocket Lab, launching more than 10 customer spacecraft. (RL-1, RL-2, RL-4)
   
• The purchase of the first commercial launch of NSIL’s new small launch vehicle, SSLV, for a dedicated rideshare mission in 2020.
   
• Spaceflight’s first deployments with Hypergiant from the International Space Station. (SEOPS-1, SEOPS-2)
   
• Four launches across three continents in the span of 16 days. (PSLV C47, SEOPS-2, RL-2, PSLV C48)

For its achievements, both in 2019 and the record-breaking launch of SSO-A in 2018, Spaceflight and CEO Curt Blake received numerous industry awards and recognition. In 2019, Blake was selected as an Innovator of the Year by the Puget Sound Business Journal and named one of Seattle’s Most Influential People by Seattle Magazine.

Spaceflight was also awarded a Laureate for Launch Services in recognition of its pioneering work in bringing the rideshare business into the mainstream by Aviation Week.

During 2020, Spaceflight plans to manage approximately 10 rideshare missions across five different launch vehicles. The company anticipates reaching a cadence of monthly launches and remains dedicated to maximizing launch capacity on available missions and assisting its customers achieve their missions on time and on budget.

Curt Blake, CEO and President of Spaceflight, stated the firm’s team has supported a record number of missions, resulting in a busy and rewarding year. 2019 made it clear that the ‘new normal’ of rideshare is a high cadence of launches. With the variety and complexity of Spaceflight missions, the company has demonstrated its expertise and experience in mission management and integration services. Looking to the coming year, more launch vehicles will be added to the company’s portfolio to meet growing launch demand, while delivering increased launch flexibility through a breadth of launch options. Ultimately, Spaceflight aims to minimize the pain points of launch delays and ensure customers’ mission goals are achieved.

Robert Sproles, Director of Ground Stations and Launch at Spire Global, noted that Spaceflight continues to provide smallsat operators frequent access to space, proving the importance of rideshare in the space industry. Spaceflight’s diverse launch portfolio, depth of skills and knowledge and commitment to providing a first-class launch experience has helped many smallsat organizations such as Spire successfully achieve their missions.

Rocket Lab has flown a fully Autonomous Flight Termination System (AFTS) for the first time on an Electron launch vehicle.

The AFTS flown on the company’s most recent mission, ‘Running Out Of Fingers,’ makes Rocket Lab one of only three U.S. launch companies to fly with an autonomous system.

The Electron launch of Rocket Lab’s “As the Crow Flies” mission. Photo is courtesy of Sam Toms and Simon Moffatt.

AFTS is a GPS-aided, computer-controlled system designed to terminate an off-nominal flight, replacing traditional human-in-the-loop monitoring systems. AFTS is crucial to increasing launch frequency and providing responsive launch capability, while maintaining the highest industry safety standards. It reduces the turnaround time between missions and provides greater schedule control by eliminating reliance on ground-assets and human flight termination operators.

‘Running Out Of Fingers’ hosted the first fully autonomous system on Electron. The launch followed four ‘shadow’ flights where the AFTS unit was flown on the vehicle for testing while traditional ground-based flight termination infrastructure remained in place. With the first fully autonomous mission now complete, all future Electron missions from Launch Complexes 1 and 2 will fly with the AFTS.

Flight termination systems are a vital part of launch operations. Traditionally, flight termination infrastructure is a ground-based system that involves a human making the decision to terminate a mission in the event of a launch vehicle straying from a pre-determined flight path. By contrast, the AFTS is an independent, self-contained subsystem mounted on-board the Electron launch vehicle. It eliminates the need for a ground-based infrastructure by moving the flight termination function to the launch vehicle.

The system makes flight termination decisions autonomously by using redundant computers that track the launch vehicle using Global Positioning System and on-board sensors, combined with configurable software-based rules, that identify where the rocket can safely fly. If a rocket goes off course the AFTS will issue a command to terminate the flight by shutting down the engines. The AFTS also delivers faster response times and improved monitoring as launch vehicle travels downrange, providing over-the-horizon tracking capabilities that are not limited by line-of-sight tracking such as that required by ground-based instrumentation at the launch site.

Rocket Lab Founder and CEO, Peter Beck, said the AFTS is yet another way Rocket Lab is innovating to increase the pace of launch and support responsive launch capability for small satellites. As the company moves to an autonomous system, Rocket Lab thanks the dedicated teams from White Sands Missile Range and Alaska Aerospace Corporation who have provided ground-based flight termination system support for Electron missions since the firm’s first launch in 2017. Their support has ensured the safety of every Electron mission and they have contributed to Rocket Lab’s record of mission success for customers.

Naomi Altman, Rocket Lab’s Avionics Manager and Project Lead for the AFTS program, added that for AFTS to be part of Electron’s 10th launch was the cherry on top of a monumental year for the entire team. Reaching this milestone is also testament to the ongoing support of government agencies and contractors who worked closely with Rocket Lab to bring the AFTS online.

SA Catapult CEO Stuart Martin (l) and TriSept CEO Rob Spicer (r) seal the deal with a handshake. Photo is courtesy of Tom Deininger.

TriSept Corporation has signed a comprehensive teaming agreement with Satellite Applications Catapult to explore and accelerate new innovations, missions and space access across the UK space industry and beyond.

Satellite Applications Catapult, part of The Catapult network and one of dozens of firms based at the Harwell Space Cluster, provides facilities and expertise for the benefit of the UK space sector. TriSept also announced its alliance with SA Catapult includes a full-time presence on the Harwell campus, where TriSept will expand its global launch integration services business in 2020.

As part of the collaborative alliance, the two companies will leverage their complementary strengths to package TriSept’s deep launch integration, planning, engineering and brokerage competencies with Catapult’s engineering expertise and growing test, clean room and logistics coordination facilities. Together, the duo expects to build a mission manifest for new vertical and horizontal launch sites in England and Scotland.

TriSept has enabled the launch of more than 200 satellites on 70 different missions and 20 different launch vehicles from 13 launch sites around the world, including the NASA VCLS ELaNa XIX mission that lifted 10 cubesats into orbit aboard the Rocket Lab Electron from Mahia, New Zealand in December of last year.

Satellite Applications Catapult is keenly focused on driving new space infrastructure and applications that support and accelerate the growth of the UK space industry, projected to capture a 10% share of the global space market by 2030.

Rob Spicer, TriSept President and CEO, said the company is going global to help drive space access in promising new space markets like the UK, where the firm can join its proven and trusted launch integration and brokerage skillset with companies like Catapult to contribute to new possibilities in space. By launching this international presence with Catapult within the Harwell Space Cluster, TriSept is extremely well positioned to broker and support exciting new missions in the UK. This partnership with Catapult will ultimately have a significant impact on the traditional and new space industries in the UK, Europe, and the U.S.

An aerial view of the Harwell Space Campus in Oxford, UK. Photo is courtesy of the Harwell Space Campus.

Stuart Martin, CEO of the Satellite Applications Catapult, said this collaborative partnership between Catapult and TriSept is a significant milestone in the firm’s overall mission to stimulate innovation and economic growth across the UK space industry. TriSept’s decades of launch integration and brokerage experience combined with Catapult’s rapid-prototyping, manufacturing and testing facilities will bring unparalleled benefits to the UK space market.

A $50 million senior secured loan from Intelsat (NYSE: I) has certainly enhanced BlackSky and has created a strategic relationship that pairs Earth Observation (EO) with a global comms infrastructure.

Over time, BlackSky could incorporate access to Intelsat’s global communications infrastructure, delivering EO insights to customers no matter where in the world they are located.

With an established manufacturing capability, mission operations center and sales channels in place, BlackSky is in the process of expanding their constellation of smallsats to deliver the highest revisit rate in the industry. The company is also fusing AI/ML-powered computer vision, high revisit rate imagery from orbital assets and open-source intelligence to provide customers with comprehensive insights about the global locations of interest to them.

Artistic rendition of BlackSky smallsats on-orbit.

BlackSky currently has four, 1 meter smallsats on-orbit with another four slated for launch in early 2020 — the firm plans to have 16 satellites in their constellation by early 2021.

Brian E. O’Toole, President and CEO of BlackSky, stated that the company is enabling an entirely new level of global intelligence by leveraging the economics of small satellites in order for customers to always be the first to know… it takes a lot of expertise, engineering and capital to make smallsats viable; BlackSky is the first company to overcome these challenges with proven economies of scale. This latest partnership is a vote of confidence in BlackSky’s ability to deliver industry leading insights to our customers from one of the biggest players in the market.

Intelsat CEO Stephen Spengler added that BlackSky is well positioned to be a significant player in the expanding Earth Observation sector, which Intelsat believes benefits from accelerating trends that include cloud computing, change detection, predictive analytics and machine learning.  The company believes a significant number of commercial and government sector customers will increasingly rely on geospatial intelligence. This investment will be used to fund enhancements to the current BlackSky infrastructure and will serve as a springboard for a commercial alliance with Intelsat and the company’s Intelsat General government subsidiary.

For this transaction, Evercore acted as a financial advisor to BlackSky and PJT Partners acted as financial advisor to Intelsat.

Journalist
Chris Forrester.

According to journalist Chris Forrester, filing at the Advanced Television infosite, satellite mega-constellation OneWeb is seeking to raise another $1 billion (€0.9bn) as it starts work on orbiting 30 satellites per month in a few weeks. OneWeb wants to circle the planet with an initial batch of 650 satellites for broadband services.

OneWeb is backed, in part, by Japanese media conglomerate SoftBank, although there are also reports that SoftBank is looking to exit the business.

The report, from the UK’s Sunday Telegraph, stated that OneWeb’s ‘cash call’ will come ahead of SoftBank’s results statement due on November 6th. However, SoftBank has already written down about £380 million of their OneWeb investment. However, the newspaper reports that SoftBank remains committed to OneWeb.

ThrustMe and Spacety have launched the first iodine-propelled smallsat.

The satellite was sent into space by a Long March 4B (CZ-4B) carrier rocket from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in China’s Shanxi Province, on November 3, 2019, at 11:22AM (Beijing time). The 6U smallsat, built by Spacety, includes an iodine propulsion system developed and built by ThrustMe.

Known as the I2T5, this propulsion system uses a first-of-its-kind, non-pressurized, cold gas thruster fueled by solid iodine. Designed with cubesats in mind, the I2T5 will help ensure a sustainable space industry by extending the lifetime of satellite missions, and enabling collision avoidance maneuvers. In the future, ThrustMe’s additional, iodine based, electric propulsion systems, will additionally enable orbital changes, constellation phasing, and orbit maintenance.

A Chinese Long March 4B drives the iodine-propellant SPACETY and ThrustMe smallsat to orbit.

Ane Aanesland, Co-Founder and CEO of ThrustMe, said this is a historic launch in so many ways: for ThrustMe, for Spacety and for the whole space community. Iodine propellant is finally being demonstrated in space. The first time iodine was discussed as a good candidate to replace pressurized gases, such as xenon, was in 2008. Since then, many research institutions, companies and space agencies have worked on developing iodine propulsion systems, including NASA with its IceCube mission. That ThrustMe is the first company to succeed in launching the first propulsion system operating with iodine as a propellant highlights the significant impact startups can have on innovation and technology advancements.

This is ThrustMe’s first launch and the company has developed a wide portfolio of smart propulsion systems for smallsats. This mission puts ThrustMe on the map as one of the few space startups with commercially available and space proven propulsion products.

This launch also demonstrated a notable change in the space industry, where startups from Europe and Asia joined forces to develop a mission with an extremely rapid development time, from idea to launch in less than a year, from contract to launch in eight months. ThrustMe and Spacety, with this first launch together, have demonstrated the importance of open minded international collaborations, according to the firms.

The I2T5 has already generated significant customer traction and will be used to propel an ISIS 6U spacecraft for the Royal Thai Air Force, to be launched in 2020, as well as the ROBUSTA-3A satellite developed by the Université de Montpellier. Several other commercial contracts have also been signed, but these clients and missions remain confidential at this stage.

The development and industrialization of the I2T5 has been supported by the French government via the BPIFrance I-LAB, and the European Unions’ Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No. 823337. The French National Space Agency (CNES) is now supporting future I2T5 enhancements.

Dmytro Rafalskyi, Co- Founder and CTO of ThrustMe, added that the I2T5 is designed for cubesats — it required only six weeks from identifying a real market need, to having a first working prototype. This was achieved by leveraging all of the work already done to develop the iodine propellant storage and feed system for the ion engine.

Weijia REN, Co- Founder and CTO of Spacety Today, noted that when the company spoke with ThrustMe about the impressive achievements they had made in the development of iodine fueled propulsion, the company knew that Spacety would be up to this historic task to make it to space in record time. The firm also saw the potential in a long-term collaboration with ThrustMe to provide the best propulsion solutions to clients in China. The majority of 3U and 6U cubesats do not have any propulsion capability as no viable solutions are offered that are safe, simple, and cost effective. Satellite operators are weary of expensive and paperwork-intensive products that include pressurized systems or flammable propellants.