R.I.P. Jim Lovell (1928 – 2025)
The man who against the odds got Apollo 13 safely back to Earth has died at the age of 97.
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Hello, and welcome to this week’s edition of The View from Space.
⭐️ Astronaut Jim Lovell has died at the age of 97. Lovell was the man who in 1970 guided the Apollo 13 mission safely back to Earth after an explosion on board the spacecraft. That mission – immortalised by the 1995 film, starring Tom Hanks – has been called, despite its failure, ‘NASA’s finest hour’.
You can find here the BBC’s excellent write-up of the life of the man behind one of the greatest understatements of all time: ‘Houston, we've had a problem’:
‘Nasa said he had "turned a potential tragedy into a success" after an attempt to land on the Moon was aborted because of an explosion onboard the spacecraft while it was hundreds of thousands of miles from Earth.
Tens of millions watched on television as Lovell and two other astronauts splashed back down into the Pacific Ocean, a moment which has become one of the most iconic in the history of space travel.
Lovell, who was also part of the Apollo 8 mission, was the first man to go to the Moon twice - but never actually landed. Acting Nasa head Sean Duffy said Lovell had helped the US space programme to "forge a historic path".
In a statement, Lovell's family said: "We will miss his unshakeable optimism, his sense of humor, and the way he made each of us feel we could do the impossible. He was truly one of a kind."‘
🛰️ Satellites face real-world threats, argues FibreCoat’s Robert Brüll and Air Marshal Andrew Turner CB CBE of NewSpace Capital in Space News. The question is – are we ready? Brüll and Turner suggests that advanced shielding materials have a crucial role to play:
‘If space is critical global infrastructure on which defense, commerce and civilian communities depend, then greater protection must be considered essential to all spacecraft. Resilience has to be made a far higher priority in space engineering and design.
Developing spacecraft that can withstand both the harsh conditions of space and attacks from hostile powers will not only allow space infrastructure to endure at the most challenging times, but also increase the natural lifespan of spacecraft and so the amount of debris in space. It will make space safer for all.
For this to happen, governments and industry have to back materials innovation at every stage in its development, starting with giving support to research institutions. Pioneering materials science will lead to breakthrough innovation that will open up countless possibilities while reducing one of the greatest risks facing the world economy.’
💰 Commercial space is now a $600bn market, points out Felix von Schubert of NewSpace Capital – and that number is expected to triple by 2035. He argues in Funds Europe that space has become a must-have investment, but that European capital markets still treat space as too exotic:
‘It is because space is about infrastructure more than exploration that it is so ripe for investment. Satellites are essential to the functioning of every modern economy on the planet. The market reflects that. The real challenge now is that institutional investors don’t yet have a ‘space’ cell on their spreadsheets. Space investments are often split across unrelated categories like telecoms, logistics or even pharmaceuticals, which confuses traditional allocation models. That has to change.
And though early-stage space ventures still carry risk, and this is why institutional capital has typically stayed away, the sector has matured. There are very many businesses with proven business models and strong customer bases and pipelines. Moreover, space is not unvarying. Within the sector there is a great deal of diversity – companies with different backgrounds, areas of expertise, applications, and levels of commercial readiness and development.
Space will increasingly become a requirement for any strong diversified portfolio.’
💸 Telecom money is funding a new era in space, says Jean-François Morizur of Cailabs. In Space News, he explains that for the first time, the space economy has a ‘stable, consumer-funded revenue base’:
‘Telecommunications is a trillion-dollar industry. To be exact, it’s a $1.1-trillion industry. By orders of magnitude, companies like Verizon, Orange and AT&T bring in more revenue per year than the entire global space sector does. So when even a fraction of that capital begins to flow into orbit, the effect is transformational. This is what we’ve been seeing for some time: money being injected directly into the vein of the space sector.
This is a major development for the simple reason that now, the space economy has a stable, consumer-funded revenue base. Yes, large parts of the space economy — Earth observation and deep space exploration — still depend on state funding. But no longer does the sector’s growth depend solely on who gets elected or the interest or liquidity of the mega-rich. The engine of the space economy’s expansion is now made up of the millions of individuals who pay for streaming and internet access every month.
A by-product of this is that Europe, whose billionaires have so far shown less interest than their mostly American counterparts in the final frontier, now potentially has a larger role to play in the fate of the space sector. With space now on the road to becoming a normal, self-sustaining market with robust consumer demand and predictable returns, precision manufacturing, engineering skill and systems integration are set to become critical differentiating factors. These are areas where Europe excels.
✂️ The UK Space Agency has been scrapped to cut costs, reports the BBC, raising fears that the UK will lose ground to its international competitors:
‘It will be absorbed by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) in April 2026. The government says this will save money, cut duplication and ensure ministerial oversight.
Dr Simeon Barber of the Open University feared that scrapping UKSA would lead to Britain's space sector "losing focus".
"Around the world countries have been recognising the importance of space by setting up national space agencies, and for the government to be scrapping ours seems like a backward step," he said.
… The development of small spacecraft, satellites and space instrumentation is a field that the UK excels at, thanks in part due to the agency. Its role is to develop the country's space strategy, coordinate research and commercial activities and liaise with international partners.
🐉 And just for the flat-Earthers out there, here is a video of the SpaceX dragon orbiting the planet: