[cuSetanta]

Space is very slow to change, and traditional harnessing is going anywhere for the time being.

I cannot speak to the newer systems on the market like Starlink, their economies of scale are closer to car manufacture, so for harnessing, they likely do it similar to that industry. Form boards and very repeatable methods for producing a harness that has been well designed into the chassis of the spacecraft to be installed at a specific point. But much of those techniques are relatively unchanged from what I do, just the timing and overall design is more optimised.

Most of the harnessing I have done is very bespoke, and happens at many stages throughout the integration as things are installing, finalised, and what-not.

[contingencies]

Thanks for taking the time to reply. I'm going interpret that as a soft yes with reservation since you seem to be extremely knowledgeable in this specialist area and additionally state that you are doing 'very bespoke' work within that. Interesting stuff, great to hear from someone with such knowledge. I suppose Starlink/SpaceX people are NDA'd to the point they can't comment, maybe we'll hear from them in future. FWIW internally we've achieved autonomous cable production ex termination (length, strip and cut including measured splice-points - rarely used), and custom bus bars which I guess are a nominal harness in a sense. Anything more complex we need pre-terminated still gets sent out.

[cuSetanta]

I would also add that the 'New Space' scene is going to be much more willing to accept autonomous manufacturing methods. People like ESA are much much more resistant to change, and will take a lot of convincing that it is as good as the slow manual method.

Honestly, as things are looking, I am likely to be leaving the space sector in the near future, so I am not too worried about protecting my job or future on that front. The more accessible space is the better, even if that means people like me become less common.