In the 'Cold Space War', the US and EU are in the same boat
The EU and the US are oceans apart politically, but space and satellite connectivity show that the continents are still very much interdependent.
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Hello, and welcome to this week’s edition of The View from Space.
❄️ The US and EU are ‘still in the same boat’ with respect to the ‘Cold Space War’, argues EuroNews.
‘Although the EU and the US might certainly seem as being oceans apart politically, having reached a point of no return, space and satellite connectivity show that the continents are still very much interdependent, while the traditional geopolitical adversaries are slowly but surely moving forward.
SpaceX / Starlink relies on EU Member States’ spectrum licences, as well as on regulatory requirements for satellite activity in (and above) Europe.
The incoming EU Space Act’s new requirements could be very costly for SpaceX, as could the Digital Networks Act’s provision for EU-wide satellite licensing, if it’s later weaponised against non-European companies. With 9 million users globally, SpaceX certainly sees Europe as a lucrative market, but a very difficult one.
As far as Europeans are concerned, in the event of any major security force majeure, Europe may still need to rely on Starlink. While Europe keeps investing in its own satellite communications capabilities, it would still take many years, and major investment, to reach efficiency and commercial success comparable to Starlink. Ukraine’s example shows that connectivity is needed fast and at scale, for both civil and military purposes.’
⛓️💥 Scottish rocket maker Orbex has collapsed after takeover talks with European space start-up The Exploration Company ended in failure. The FT reports:
‘The takeover talks with TEC collapsed after the European group failed to win UK government funding for its high-thrust rocket engine programme, according to two people close to the situation.
Orbex’s demise with debts of £49mn deals a blow to the UK’s ambitions to see a British rocket launch from a domestic spaceport.
The company, valued at $220mn in a 2022 fundraising, was one of just two rocket makers that had been backed by the UK government in recent years as part of its aim to be the first country to launch a commercial satellite into orbit from western Europe.
However, years of delays in the development of its launcher left a growing gap in Orbex’s finances, despite two injections totalling £26mn by the UK last year.’
🤔 Launch companies are debating how to compete with SpaceX in a market where demand outstrips supply, yet customers remain price sensitive. SpaceNews reports:
‘During a panel at the SmallSat Symposium on Feb. 11, executives from several launch companies acknowledged the challenge of competing with SpaceX, which accounted for about half of all orbital launches globally in 2025, despite strong customer demand for launch services.
The issue is particularly acute for small launch vehicle developers, who have struggled to compete on price with SpaceX’s rideshare program.
“If your idea is to go into the market competing with SpaceX on price, you’re probably not in a good competitive position,” said Brian Rogers, vice president of global launch services at Rocket Lab, one of the few small launch vehicle developers to thrive despite competition from SpaceX.
“You have to have a different market entry strategy,” he said, competing on factors other than price. “You have to be able to differentiate yourself.”
Daniele Dallari, sales manager at PLD Space, a Spanish small launch vehicle developer, agreed. He said the company believed its prices were “very competitive” but acknowledged it could not compete on price alone.
“It’s the services that we provide, not just the price. That’s dedicated launch and quick response to customer needs,” he said.’
🛡️ Europe’s IRIS² must prioritise resilience, writes Dr Robert Brüll, CEO of FibreCoat, and Martin Halliwell, Partner at NewSpace Capital, for Aerospace Global News:
‘The brutal reality is that any system developer or operator who assumes space is the benign environment it once was is already on the way to making their work obsolete.
So we’re forced to wonder why so much of the public conversation around IRIS² still centres on coverage maps, industrial return, and institutional ownership. Of course, these matter; but do they address the central question? Will the system still work when someone is actively attempting to bring it down?
We know how satellites can be attacked. Hostile actors can jam radio frequencies and overwhelm signals; they can hack into and corrupt control systems on the ground; they can mislead users through spoofing; and – the brute force option – they can directly damage or destroy spacecraft.
Hence, a constellation designed primarily with coverage and sending a political signal in mind risks failing to succeed on its own terms.’
🤝 AXA Digital Commercial Platform and Planet have formed a partnership to track and predict natural disasters like never before. Via Satellite reports:
‘AXA Digital Commercial Platform (AXA DCP), a new arm of AXA, will use Planet’s high- and medium-resolution satellites and its high-frequency basemaps, refreshed almost daily, to inform its clients about catastrophes like floods, wildfires, and hurricanes. The companies announced the deal on Feb. 12.
“At a time like this, we are looking to strike deals with those companies that can provide us the high-quality climate intelligence we need to better understand and respond rapidly to such events and, to the degree that it is possible, foresee them and enable our clients to take preventative or evasive measures,” AXA DCP CEO Pierre du Rostu said in a release.
Planet said its data is essential for insurance companies to build predictive models and analyze risk more efficiently.
As climate change intensifies, damages from natural disasters are on the rise. There were 28 and 27 natural disasters in the United States with damages exceeding $1 billion in 2023 and 2024 respectively, up from an average of 9 disasters for all years from 1980 to 2024, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.’
🔋 The Washington Post reports that wireless power transmission from space, ‘once science fiction’, could soon be a reality.
‘First proposed in the late 1960s by aerospace engineer Peter E. Glaser but dismissed as science fiction, the concept of space-based solar power is now being tested in the real world. Wireless power transmission has been demonstrated experimentally for decades, and related technologies have been used safely in satellite communications for even longer. What has changed is precision: Modern systems can steer, shape and monitor beams continuously, with safeguards that reduce or shut down transmission if they stray outside defined limits.
The primary appeal of space-based solar power lies in what it could offer Earth. Operating above the atmosphere, it can deliver continuous electricity unaffected by night, weather or seasonal variation, a rare attribute as power grids become increasingly dependent on intermittent renewable sources. Because it is not tied to geography or fuel supply chains, it could provide reliable energy to regions that struggle to generate or transport power locally, including disaster areas that would otherwise face power outages. And by moving large-scale energy collection off-planet, it offers the possibility of meeting growing energy demand while easing pressure on land and ecosystems at home.’
👽 Barack Obama believes aliens are real – but insists he hasn’t seen any. The Times reports:
‘In an interview with the progressive podcast host Brian Tyler Cohen, Obama was asked whether he believed extraterrestrial life existed.
“They’re real,” he said. “But I haven’t seen them. They’re not being kept at Area 51. There’s no underground facility — unless there’s this enormous conspiracy and they hid it from the president of the United States.”
Area 51 refers to a classified US air force facility at Groom Lake in southern Nevada. The secrecy surrounding its use has made it a favourite target of conspiracy theorists speculating on the existence of UFOs and extraterrestrial life.
Obama was not asked a follow-up question on the issue by Cohen, an omission widely criticised given the striking nature of the former president’s claim. Instead, Cohen asked what the first question Obama wanted answered was when he entered the White House. “Where are the aliens?” Obama joked in response.’
🧑🚀 Four new astronauts arrived via a SpaceX rocket at the International Space Station, writes The Guardian:
‘SpaceX delivered the US, French and Russian astronauts a day after launching them from Cape Canaveral.
Last month’s medical evacuation was Nasa’s first in 65 years of human spaceflight. One of four astronauts launched by SpaceX last summer suffered what officials described as a serious health issue, prompting their hasty return. That left only three crew members to keep the place running – one American and two Russians – prompting Nasa to pause spacewalks and trim research.
Moving in for eight to nine months are Nasa’s Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, France’s Sophie Adenot, and Russia’s Andrey Fedyaev. Meir, a marine biologist, and Fedyaev, a former military pilot, have visited the ISS before. During her first space station visit in 2019, Meir took part in the first all-female spacewalk..’
📸 Simera Sense is building higher-resolution cameras for bigger satellites, as SpaceNews reports:
‘After attracting cubesat customers, Belgium-based Simera Sense is developing higher-resolution optical payloads for larger satellites.
To date, Simera Sense customers have sent more than 50 xScape100 and xScape200 cameras into orbit. Most have flown on cubesats ranging in size from 6u to 16u.
For larger satellites, Simera Sense is developing standardized optical payloads to provide imagery with a ground sample distance of less than one meter. The first deliveries of the new payloads are expected in 2028.
“Demand for sub one-meter imagery is growing,” Thys Cronje, Simera Sense chief commercial officer, told SpaceNews at the SmallSat Symposium. “People want to see more detail on the ground.”’
🇪🇺 And the BBC has published a report that looks inside Europe’s space race: