In June 2025 the French government announced a €1.35 billion capital injection into Eutelsat, via the Agence des participations de l’État, with €717 million to be injected and Bpifrance’s 13.6% stake absorbed, lifting France’s holding to 29.99%. France becomes Eutelsat’s largest shareholder as a result of the stake transfer, solidifying the 29.99% holding. The move…
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The Pentagon aims to field a software-defined, multi-layer Enterprise SATCOM network that seamlessly routes data across DoD, allied, and commercial satellites in LEO, MEO, and GEO to support Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2). In 2020 the Space Force and DoD CIO committed to the shift, with the SDA launching the National Defense Space Architecture…
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1859: British astronomer Richard Carrington observed a powerful solar flare, and within a day telegraph systems worldwide went haywire while auroras appeared near the equator—the Carrington Event, the largest geomagnetic storm on record. During the 1957–58 International Geophysical Year, Explorer-1 became the first U.S. satellite to discover the Van Allen radiation belts encircling Earth. SOHO,…
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On September 19, 1988, Ofek-1 became Israel’s first indigenous satellite, making Israel the eighth nation to orbit its own spacecraft. The Israel Space Agency (ISA) was established in 1983 under physicist Yuval Ne’eman to oversee Israel’s civilian space activities. The Shavit launch vehicle is a 20-meter-tall, three-stage solid-fuel rocket that can loft about 380 kg…
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The China National Space Administration (CNSA) was established in 1993 as China’s civil space authority. By the end of 2024, China operated more than 1,060 active satellites in orbit, a count that has grown more than six-fold since 2015. Chang’e-4 achieved the first landing on the Moon’s far side in 2019. Micius (Mozi), launched in…
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Starlink Constellation (2019–present) by SpaceX comprises about 4,500 microsatellites in ~550 km LEO with Ku/Ka-band user links and laser crosslinks, enabling global internet including disaster response. James Webb Space Telescope (2021) features a 6.5 m segmented mirror and instruments NIRCam, NIRSpec, and MIRI, delivering the deepest infrared images of the universe including SMACS 0723 and…
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Starlink’s upfront CapEx was estimated at about $10 billion and later as high as $30 billion, SpaceX launched over 8,000 Starlink satellites with about 4,000 in operation by April 2025, and the service exceeded 5 million subscribers worldwide by 2025. Amazon’s Project Kuiper is a $10 billion plan for a 3,236-satellite constellation, with 27 production…
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By 2040, analysts expect the global GEO replacement rate to be 10–15 new satellites per year, totaling about 200 GEO satellites from 2024 to 2040 and replacing most of today’s roughly 350-satellite fleet. A typical GEO satellite is designed for about 15 years, but all-electric propulsion and on-orbit servicing can push operational life to 20–30…
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In May 1999, NASA’s Deep Space 1 operated for three days with the Remote Agent AI, planning activities and diagnosing simulated faults autonomously. From 2001 to 2004, NASA’s EO-1 carried the Autonomous Sciencecraft Experiment (ASE), using onboard machine learning and the CASPER planner to re-task after events like volcanic eruptions. In 2013, JAXA’s Epsilon rocket…
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Executive Summary In summary, the 2025–2032 period will likely be remembered as the “gold rush” era for small satellite launch services, marked by fierce competition, rapidly advancing technology, and multiplying launch opportunities worldwide. For stakeholders – whether satellite operators planning constellations, investors evaluating launch companies, or government agencies seeking assured access to space – the…
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