This year, Europe took major steps to break out on its own in space, including investing in sovereign tech, forging new relationships, and gaining an appreciation for dual-use hardware.

We built a word cloud based on the 100+ stories Payload ran on the European space industry this year, and one theme jumped out immediately: a lot of forward-looking language.

The joint venture owned by Finnish EO firm ICEYE and German arms maker Rheinmetall has turned on its money-printing machine.

The real value of the ELC, according to Raúl Verdú, PLD’s chief business development officer, is the doors the challenge opens for PLD to extract knowledge from ESA.

The space industry is growing and growing—and today we’re looking at some of the companies that threw their hat in the ring in 2025. 

In a magic trick, making something disappear is only part of the act—bringing it back is what earns the applause.

Orbital traffic is increasing at a rapid clip, and many sats aren’t even looking where they’re going. 

Military capabilities on orbit are ramping up, but aside from a handful of explosive anti-satellite demos in recent decades, the rising tension has yet to get physical.