ABSTRACT
The job of the program manager (PM) hasn't changed much in the seven decades of satellite systems development. The Harvard Business School uses a century old case study to illustrate a fundamental principle of organizations particularly relevant to the space enterprise. This chapter illustrates a case study what Harvard Business School professor Michael Tushman calls the Tyranny of Success. Traditional satellite manufacturers and operators of commercial, civil, military, and intelligence space systems have been enormously successful over the last decades, and are today demonstrating the Tyranny of Success. The United States and the former Soviet Union began designing and building anti-satellite (ASAT) weapons only a few years after Sputnik. NewSpace companies are well funded by Venture Capitalists (VC) and Angel investors, or by one of the several technology billionaires interested in space. There will be at least two major impacts to the space industry from these low earth orbits mega-constellations, assuming they can surmount some significant technical and regulatory hurdles.
