U.K. launches Borealis to protect satellites
The space defence system is operational six months earlier than planned.
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Hello, and welcome to this week’s edition of The View from Space.
🔸 The U.K. launched a new space defence system to help protect its satellites. The system, Borealis, is operational six months earlier than planned. Open Access Government reported:
‘Developed as part of a £65 million investment over five years, Borealis is designed to track satellites, space debris, and potentially hostile objects moving around Earth.
The software combines and analyses information from multiple sources to give operators a clearer and faster understanding of activity in space.
Borealis will support the work of the National Space Operations Centre, helping military and government teams respond more effectively to risks that could threaten UK space assets.
Around 20% of the UK economy relies on services enabled by space technology, including GPS navigation, weather forecasting, financial transactions, telecommunications, and internet connectivity.’
🔸 In Parliament Magazine, FibreCoat’s Robert Brüll argued that Europe needs ‘the capacity to stand on its own’:
‘The problem isn’t money. European defense spending is rising and the continent includes several of the world’s largest economies. But spending doesn’t equal capability — the technology that money buys does.
Modern defense systems are built on software, satellite links, encryption and data. Many of their components are designed, owned or controlled by American firms. In some cases, they may include proprietary restrictions — so-called kill switches — or depend on external permissions to function fully.
Any system that can be limited or disabled by another actor cannot be considered sovereign. The EU has decided to accept this compromise because American technology is excellent. The alternative is often reliance on China, which is strategically and politically untenable.
But dependence has costs. Foreign policy decisions made in Washington — including delays on weapons deliveries to Ukraine — have shown that access and support are not guaranteed. Dependence turns differences of opinion into operational risks.’
🔸 POLITICO reported that the 'European Commission wants to ‘reserve most satellite frequencies for European operators when a prized spectrum band opens up next year’:
‘“Spectrum is becoming very important for us when we speak about our connectivity, also our secure connectivity, but also for the economic purposes,” the EU’s tech and security czar Henna Virkkunen told reporters after a meeting with EU commissioners in Brussels.
The decision risks angering Washington, just days after EU institutions reached an agreement on the details of a new EU-U.S. trade deal. It will limit the frequencies available to U.S. companies, including Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Amazon Leo, and curtail their fast expansion.’
🔸 The EU’s space industry expressed concerns that the EU Space Act would make the bloc less competitive. SpaceNews reported:
‘Speaking at SmallSat Europe, panelists said they did not oppose regulation itself or the idea behind a common European framework. However, the words most frequently used to describe the first and second drafts of the EU Space Act were “monopoly,” “slow,” “rigid” and “micromanaging.”
Chiara Manfletti, CEO of Neuraspace, argued the current draft misunderstands how fast-moving commercial space operates.
“The idea of having an EU Space Act is absolutely good. The problem is the proposal currently on the table,” Manfletti said during a panel. “If it takes 12 months to get a license, that is ancient history for the commercial space sector.”’
🔸 The FT reported that Elon Musk described a deal with Anthropic as merely ‘a 180-day lease’, calling into question how his rocket group SpaceX characterised the agreement in its IPO prospectus last week:
‘SpaceX in its pre-IPO filing last week said the AI start-up had “agreed to pay us $1.25 billion per month through May 2029”, making the total value of the contract as high as $45bn.
This agreement would go a long way to offsetting billions in capital spending by SpaceX’s AI unit, formerly xAI, which has been a financial drag on the wider company ahead of its ambitious listing in the coming weeks.
But on Thursday Musk posted on X that the Anthropic arrangement was merely “a 180 day lease with 90 day notice mutual cancellation”, greatly reducing the revenue promised to SpaceX under the deal.’
🔸 China has launched three astronauts aboard its Shenzhou 23 spacecraft, sending a new crew to the Tiangong space station. The BBC reported:
'After reaching orbit, Shenzhou 23 docked with the Tiangong space station, where the crew will take over from the astronauts of the Shenzhou 21 mission, who have spent more than 200 days in space.
During their stay, the new crew will conduct dozens of experiments spanning life sciences, medicine, materials science and microgravity physics.
One of the mission’s most significant objectives is a planned year-long stay in orbit by a member of the crew.’
🔸 And finally, a Blue Origin rocket exploded during a test in Florida: