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Business & Finance

Balance Sheets Now Matter More Than Rockets

February 12, 2026 / Business & Finance

Dispatch from SmallSat Symposium. The visionaries pitching Mars colonies have largely left the building. In their place sit investment bankers, project finance lawyers, and strategic investors who are currently rewiring the architecture of the $613 billion space economy. At this year’s SmallSat Symposium, the speculative exuberance of the SPAC (special-purpose acquisition company) boom has vanished, replaced by a mood of disciplined pragmatism. The Space Capital Markets session delivered a painful clarity to the room: the novelty of access to orbit is commoditized. Value now relies on applying traditional financial rigor to orbital infrastructure. 

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70,000 Satellites, One Big Bottleneck: The Industry Wakes Up to the Data Trap

February 12, 2026 / Business & Finance

Dispatch from SmallSat Symposium. Novaspace Partner Nathan De Ruiter presented staggering figures. Opening the floor with an exclusive forecast, he predicted that 70,000 small satellites launching over the next decade will represent an investment of roughly $134 billion. Yet the mechanism for getting those satellites’ data back to Earth remains archaic, fragmented, and dangerously slow. We have entered the era of the Data Trap, where terabytes of potential insight perish in orbit because the physical pipe to the ground is too narrow.

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Software Defines the New Front Lines of Space Defense

February 12, 2026 / Business & Finance

Dispatch from SmallSat Symposium. For decades the space industry measured ground segment power in rack units and heavy copper cabling. That model was effectively retired here at the SmallSat Symposium. Instead of bigger antennas or faster rockets, discussion on the floor focuses on the convergence of Silicon Valley software agility with modern defense’s strategic requirements.

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SES Executive Confirms End of the 15-Year Satellite Era

February 12, 2026 / Business & Finance

Dispatch from SmallSat Symposium. Taking the stage, Dr. Bryan Benedict, Senior Director of Innovation at SES Space & Defense, dismantled rather than defended the legacy model. He described the merger between satellite giants SES and Intelsat that created a fleet of over 100 operational spacecraft not as a strategic power play but as a tactic necessary for survival.

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The Dumb Pipe Is Dead: Why Physics Is Forcing AI Into Orbit

February 11, 2026 / Business & Finance

Dispatch from SmallSat Symposium. The concept of the satellite as a simple relay, serving as little more than a shiny mirror reflecting data to control rooms in Houston or Darmstadt, is extinct. At the Computer History Museum, the panel on Autonomy and AI in Space Operations delivered a eulogy for the dumb pipe era and a baptism for the intelligent edge. The consensus among the engineers and operators on stage was absolute. We aren't automating space operations because it is trendy; we are doing it because the physics of the new orbital environment leaves us no choice.

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FCC Proposes Assembly Line Licensing to Replace Decades-Old Space Rules

February 11, 2026 / Government & Regulation

Dispatch from SmallSat Symposium. Speaking at the SmallSat Symposium, Sheppard Mullin partner Drew Svor outlined the Federal Communications Commission’s plan to retire legacy Part 25 rules in favor of a modular system under Part 100. This proposal seeks to modernize a licensing process that has struggled to keep pace with soaring application volumes and increasingly complex mission profiles.

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The Space Tourist Is Dead. Long Live the Orbital Industrialist.

February 11, 2026 / Business & Finance

Dispatch from SmallSat Symposium. For the Space Industry Investment and Exit Strategies panel, a clear consensus emerged that the space sector has graduated from a science fair to a serious asset class. No one’s funding technology for technology's sake anymore. Today, capital flows follow what insiders call the barbell market of recurring revenue, defense utility, and the ability to survive.

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The End of the Passive Satellite

February 11, 2026 / Business & Finance

Dispatch from SmallSat Symposium. For years, the SmallSat Symposium acted as a showcase for cheaper data relays and internet-from-the-sky optimism. But inside the Grand Hall today, the mask slipped during the session on Building the Physical Layer of Autonomy. The industry isn't just building smarter cameras but constructing the nervous system for orbital combat.

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The Benign Era is Over: Why the Commercial Space Sector Just Woke Up on the Front Lines

February 11, 2026 / Business & Finance

Dispatch from SmallSat Symposium. For the past decade the SmallSat industry operated under a comforting delusion that low Earth orbit was a sanctuary where commercial operators could move fast, break things, and prioritize automotive-grade electronics over military-grade hardening. Dr. Paul Struhsaker, CEO of Arrasar Partners, with the precision of the former NSA intelligence analyst and Navy submarine officer that he is, exposed and dismantled that illusion during the session Orbital Assets: Contested and Congested.

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