Optimal launch manifesting for space freight operations

Abstract

This paper proposes a novel framework to optimize a launch vehicle manifesting plan for small satellites from the perspective of a space freight forwarder. The forwarder in space logistics coordinates individual shipment orders from the launch customers and launch service providers like a freight forwarder in ground logistics does. An optimal launch manifesting problem is formulated as a variant of the vehicle routing problem involving the decisions on carriers, launch strategies (dedicated or multi-payload), launch dates, and satellite deployment sequence. A solution procedure based on the column generation method is proposed to address the challenges associated with the large-scale combinatorial optimization problem. A case study demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed framework and solution procedure.