Explainer
Breaking down the biggest space topics in an accessible way.
Exclusive: Euroconsult Values 2022 Space Economy at $464B
In its flagship Space Economy Report published this morning, Paris-based Euroconsult finds that the space market grew 8% in 2022. This report is the gold standard for market intelligence on the end-to-end space economy, from upstream manufacturers to downstream service providers and end users across civil, military, and commercial space. The space value chain… …as…
Space Markets: The Year in Review
The key theme for aerospace within financial markets has been the bifurcation of performance between the traditional aerospace and defense (A&D) sector and space SPACs. Despite the broader market’s abysmal performance this year, traditional A&D companies have outperformed phenomenally. Companies like Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, and BAE Systems are trading 15%–37%+ YTD. The sector…
The Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA): An Explainer
Note: This article refers to the National Defense Space Architecture (NDSA), which has since been renamed the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA). Over the last few years, the space industry has grown by leaps and bounds, pushing our space capabilities forward at an unprecedented rate. While its weapons systems may be fast, the Pentagon’s procurement…
Election Day 2022: What We’re Watching
Happy Election Day to US readers. Hope you all are already sporting your “I voted” stickers. While we won’t know results for hours (or even days), these are the close races among space committee members that we’ll be watching as results roll in (with predictions c/o FiveThirtyEight and Cook Political Report): On the other side…
The Space Insurance Landscape
Launching satellites to space is a risky business. The field of orbitally proven vehicles remains small, sensor and payload technology is new and constantly changing, and certain orbital regimes are getting more crowded by the month. Insurers, of course, are no strangers to risk. The space insurance industry dates back nearly 60 years. But the…
How to Watch NASA’s Planetary Defense Mission
NASA is prepping for the day it may have to defend the Earth against an oncoming threat. Today, it’s taking a sci-fi approach: smashing a spacecraft into an asteroid hurtling through space to try and knock it off its course. The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) has been on the long journey to its target…
Regulating Orbital Debris, Part Three
This is the third installment of our deep dive on orbital debris. Read Part One and Part Two. – Space is getting more crowded, especially in the regions where satellite operators vie for the best orbits. The density of operational satellites is increasing faster each year. And as for the debris already up there? It’s…
Recapping the First Six Months of 2022 in Space
We’ve made it halfway through 2022. The year has flown by, but it’s been filled with big news and firsts for the space industry. Here’s our recap of the off-Earth goings-on during these last six months. Q1 The year started off with a bang as JWST unfolded successfully, reached its new home a million miles…
Regulating Orbital Debris, Part Two
This is the second installment of our deep dive on orbital debris. Read Part One here. – Plenty of ink is spilled on the notion that the space industry is at an inflection point, driven by lowering launch costs and barriers to entry. In the coming decade, tens of thousands of satellites are poised to…
Regulating Orbital Debris, Part One
When humanity was just beginning space launches 60 years ago, it seemed as if nothing could stand in the way of our inevitable push into the cosmos. Now, a booming young commercial space industry is brushing up against a consequence of this frontier mindset, and a problem of our own making: debris. Orbiting several hundred…
ESA Floats Ariane 6 Upgrade
Image credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace/Optique vidéo du CSG – JM Guillon The European Space Agency announced last week that it intends to develop an upgraded solid rocket booster for the Ariane 6 and Vega vehicles. So, what’s new? Well, the proposed P120C+ booster will be ~1 meter taller than the current P120, which would allow for an…
A Q&A with @Iridiumboss Matt Desch
Matthew Desch is the CEO of Iridium (NASDAQ:IRDM), a $5.1B satellite operator based in McLean, VA. Payload recently caught up with Desch across town at Satellite 2022. Over the course of an hour, we chatted about (shocker) satellites, constellation strategy, corporate reinvention, Iridium’s moat, “commodity broadband,” Ukraine, dual-use tech, SPACs, and more. There are three…
