Space is having its 'internet moment'
Space is booming, and investors should take note, argues NewSpace Capital's Felix von Schubert.
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Hello, and welcome to this week’s edition of The View from Space.
📈 Writing for SpaceNews, NewSpace Capital’s Executive Chairman Felix von Schubert argued that space is having its ‘internet moment’, as satellites come to play an ever-greater role in ordinary life, underpinning everything from internet access to weather forecasting and payments:
‘There are now more than 14,000 active satellites in orbit, according to industry counts; and rockets launch somewhere in the world almost every day. Companies like SpaceX send up batches of satellites at once, and constellations such as Starlink provide ongoing internet service to paying customers. Space is less about standalone spacecraft and more about fleets working together.
Connectivity, Earth observation, navigation, secure communications — all of these essential services now operate unceasingly. Satellite broadband connects remote homes, aircraft and ships at sea. Earth observation companies capture, fuse, process and sell imagery and insights to insurers, energy traders and agricultural bodies who use it to track storms, crops and infrastructure. Navigation systems like the Global Positioning System guide planes, container ships and delivery fleets every day. Governments and armed forces use secure satellite links for routine communications, not special occasions. Customers pay monthly fees or sign contracts that last several years.
The opportunity is considerable. The global space economy is worth about $600 billion today, according to Space Foundation, and McKinsey & Co. believes it could reach $1.8 trillion in 2035. This isn’t hype. These numbers reflect the extent to which people and businesses already use space-based services.’
🛡️ At Space Park Leicester, Graeme Ritchie and Dan Molland of orbital defence company Shield Space made a powerful case for satellite autonomy – and why Britain can lead:
‘For defence operations, you want to get to the point where you can give your interceptor a target, with a defined set of rules of engagement, and then hand it over to engage that space-based target set and deliver the intended effect. We are not going to do all of that on this first mission, but you cannot get to that point until you have done the steps beneath it. …
‘I think we as Britain — and Europe more generally — talk ourselves down quite a lot, and I don’t think we need to. We are actually in quite a competitive position if we seize the initiative. The UK ecosystem is a great example: there is a huge amount of capability here, but it is fragmented across different areas.
We have spent the past ten years with the US learning how we want to do space control, and we now have the doctrinal understanding to take a leadership position: here is how this should be done, and here is how we can deliver the capability.’
🇮🇳 In Forbes India, Samreen Wani asked if Skyroot’s unicorn milestone is ‘Indian space tech’s coming-of-age moment’:
‘Skyroot CEO Pawan Chandana explains that the funds will be channelled into building infrastructure to scale Vikram-I operations, supporting a pipeline of future launches, and driving the development of the next-generation Vikram-II rocket.
Vikram-I is India’s first privately built multi-stage orbital vehicle. The four-stage rocket, designed to carry small satellites into space, is expected to lift off in the coming weeks. The heavier-lift Vikram-II will expand the company’s capabilities by ferrying larger payloads across multiple orbits.
“The presence of GIC, BlackRock and Ram Sriram on the cap table implies a thesis that India’s launch market is a multi-decade infrastructure story, not a speculative tech bet,” says Vipul Patel, partner for seed investing at IIMA Ventures.’
🛰️ Space asset protection must become ‘an EU strategic priority’, argued EurActiv:
‘Europe’s space surveillance and tracking system is growing, but so are the risks it is designed to manage. As the number of satellites and debris in orbit accelerates, limitations in tracking and prediction are becoming harder to ignore, raising questions about how quickly Europe can adapt.
“Millions of small objects remain untracked, some of which could pose a risk to operational satellites,” warns João Alves, who leads the Space Surveillance and Tracking (SST) Front Desk at the European Union Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA).’
🌍 The Times reported that Europe’s space sector has ‘blasted off’ as the region looks to weaken its dependence on the U.S.:
‘Trump’s decision [to suspend US military support for Ukraine] revealed to European governments the extent of their reliance on American technology, including the use of satellites to detect Russian bomber launches and to guide precision-guided weapons.
“There was a rapid realisation that Europe and the UK don’t have anything in this area, because they’ve exclusively relied on the US. So when it switched off, it became really acute that you actually need this capability to manage the theatre of war,” [Seraphim boss Mark] Boggett said.
ICEYE, a Finnish company recently valued at $2.8 billion and Seraphim’s largest holding, has been one of the principal beneficiaries. The company operates satellites that can be used in climate monitoring and insurance as well as defence and intelligence.’
☄️ An asteroid will miss Earth by a quarter of the length from us to the moon, the New Scientist reports:
‘An asteroid with the potential to ruin a city will pass Earth next week. 2026JH2, as it has been labelled by the astronomy community, is predicted to zoom by our planet at an estimated distance of 90,917 kilometres – only a quarter of the distance between us and the moon.
“In astronomical terms, it’s as close as you can get without hitting,” says Mark Norris at the University of Lancashire, UK.’
⚔️ Finally, the Wall Street Journal describes a ‘high-stakes battle for space internet’ between Amazon and SpaceX: