SatNews

Satellite Industry Intelligence Since 1983

Military & Defense

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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SDA Acting Chief Sovereign over the Supply Chain

February 10, 2026 / Military & Defense

Dispatch from SmallSat Symposium. The age of PowerPoint architecture has passed. For five years, the Space Development Agency operated as the Pentagon’s rebellious startup, promising to deliver a Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture faster than the establishment could draft a requirements document. At the SmallSat Symposium, however, no celebratory mood pervaded the SDA Vision: Pacing Evolving Threats session. Instead, a sober atmosphere prevailed as SDA’s ambitions met the friction of reality.

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From SmallSat Gold Rush to Fortress: The Militarization of Commercial Space

February 10, 2026 / Business & Finance

Dispatch from SmallSat Symposium: The era of the slide-deck billionaire is dead. Attendees entering the Small Satellites: Trends and Opportunities session expecting standard futurism about connecting the unconnected or democratizing the stars were likely disappointed. The mood at SmallSat Symposium has shifted from gold-rush optimism to the cold calculus of a fortress under construction.

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