AST SpaceMobile Shares Rally Following Successful Deployment of Massive BlueBird 6 Array
MIDLAND, Texas – Shares of AST SpaceMobile, Inc. (NASDAQ: ASTS) climbed as much as 6.9% in premarket trading on Wednesday, Feb. 11, following the company’s announcement of the successful unfolding of its BlueBird 6 satellite antenna. The event marks a ...
KSAT Launches Hyperion Demonstration for In-Orbit Data Relay
At the SmallSat Symposium in Silicon Valley on February 10, 2026, Kongsberg Satellite Services (KSAT) unveiled the Hyperion mission, a pivotal demonstration intended to move its HYPER in-orbit relay constellation from concept to operational reality. By transposing its world-leading terrestrial ...
Voyager Lands $24.5M NASA JSC Mission Management Contract
On February 9, 2026, Voyager Technologies (NYSE: VOYG) announced a significant $24.5 million Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract from NASA’s Johnson Space Center. This four-year agreement establishes Voyager as a cornerstone of the International Space Station (ISS) ecosystem, tasking the ...
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Compliance Becomes the New Gatekeeper for Space Startups
Dispatch from SmallSat Symposium. The SmallSat Symposium traditionally showcases hardware and orbital mechanics, but this year a different theme emerged. As the commercial space sector deepens ties with the Department of Defense, the focus is shifting from pure innovation to ...
The FCC Is Converting Space Regulation Into an Assembly Line
Dispatch from SmallSat Symposium. Dr. Jay Schwarz, Chief of the FCC Space Bureau, delivered a direct message to the industry during the Navigating Global Space Regulations session this afternoon. The Bureau is pivoting its operational philosophy from adjudication to mass ...
SmallSat Launch Prices Rise as Competitors Stall on the Pad
Dispatch from SmallSat Symposium. The era of cheap, plentiful, and diverse access to space was supposed to be here by now. Instead, the industry arrived at the 2026 SmallSat Symposium only to find itself trapped in a bottleneck of its ...
The Dumb Pipe Is Dead: Why Physics Is Forcing AI Into Orbit
Dispatch from SmallSat Symposium. The concept of the satellite as a simple relay, serving as little more than a shiny mirror reflecting data to control rooms in Houston or Darmstadt, is extinct. At the Computer History Museum, the panel on ...
FCC Proposes Assembly Line Licensing to Replace Decades-Old Space Rules
Dispatch from SmallSat Symposium. Speaking at the SmallSat Symposium, Sheppard Mullin partner Drew Svor outlined the Federal Communications Commission’s plan to retire legacy Part 25 rules in favor of a modular system under Part 100. This proposal seeks to modernize ...
The End of the Open Range: LEO’s Spectrum Crunch Hits Home
Dispatch from SmallSat Symposium. With over 14,000 satellites in orbit and filings for hundreds of thousands more flooding the International Telecommunication Union [ITU], the industry has hit a wall. Success is no longer determined by who can launch the fastest ...
The Space Tourist Is Dead. Long Live the Orbital Industrialist.
Dispatch from SmallSat Symposium. For the Space Industry Investment and Exit Strategies panel, a clear consensus emerged that the space sector has graduated from a science fair to a serious asset class. No one’s funding technology for technology's sake anymore ...
The End of the Passive Satellite
Dispatch from SmallSat Symposium. For years, the SmallSat Symposium acted as a showcase for cheaper data relays and internet-from-the-sky optimism. But inside the Grand Hall today, the mask slipped during the session on Building the Physical Layer of Autonomy. The ...
The Benign Era is Over: Why the Commercial Space Sector Just Woke Up on the Front Lines
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 ...
The Empire Strikes Back: Europe’s Defense Giants Are Done Playing Catch-Up
Dispatch from SmallSat Symposium. Dr. Marco Brancati, newly minted Technical Director of the Leonardo Space Division, took the stage for the Keynote By Leonardo. Brancati didn't come to Mountain View to talk about democratizing space but to describe a fortress ...
The $175 Billion Shadow: Inside the Golden Dome’s Identity Crisis
Dispatch from SmallSat Symposium. Even here in the heart of Silicon Valley, the conversation has pivoted aggressively toward the Pentagon. The topic is the Golden Dome, the administration’s missile defense architecture mandated by Executive Order 14186 and funded at $175 ...
China Advances 2030 Lunar Timeline with Successful Long March 10 Integrated Test
JIUQUAN, China – The China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) has completed an "extraordinary" integrated flight test involving its next-generation Mengzhou crew capsule and the Long March 10 (CZ-10) reusable rocket. The mission, conducted on Tuesday, Feb. 10, simultaneously validated a ...
Global Defense Budgets Shift Toward Total Situational Awareness and Orbital AI
HERNDON, Virginia – Targeting the gap between raw satellite data collection and actionable battlefield intelligence, global defense agencies have officially pivoted toward "Total Situational Awareness" as a primary budget priority for 2026. A market analysis released on Wednesday, Feb. 11, ...
US-India Space Forum Convenes in Bengaluru to Solidify TRUST Initiative Framework
BENGALURU, India – Key government officials and industry leaders from the United States and India met in Bengaluru on Tuesday, Feb. 10, for the inaugural US-India Commercial Space Forum of 2026. The high-level summit aims to operationalize the TRUST (Technology ...
MTN Finalizes Reseller Agreement for Amazon Leo Maritime Deployment
FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida – MTN Satellite Communications (MTN) has secured a landmark agreement to become one of the first authorized maritime resellers for Amazon Leo, the low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite broadband network formerly known as Project Kuiper. Announced on Feb ...
SatService to Deploy Q/V-band Ground Station for German Bundeswehr University
Steißlingen, Germany – SatService GmbH, a subsidiary of Calian Group Ltd. (TSX: CGY), has been awarded a contract by the German Federal Ministry of Defence to deliver a full-service Q/V-band satellite ground station. Announced on Tuesday, Feb. 10, the project ...
D2D’s Hype Hangover: The Physics Finally Bite Back
Dispatch from SmallSat Symposium. The free drinks at SmallSat Symposium usually signal a celebration, but this year they feel more like a necessity. If 2024 was the year of the press release, early 2026 is the year of the hangover ...
Silicon Valley to Aerospace: Code is the New Steel
Dispatch from SmallSat Symposium. Rockets still make a lot of noise, but the revolution visible at the SmallSat Symposium moves silently, digitally, and at the speed of code. For decades “metal benders”—those massive aerospace conglomerates that first weld titanium and ...
Space Has a Plumbing Problem, and It’s Getting Expensive
Dispatch from SmallSat Symposium. Rockets function reliably. Satellites roll off assembly lines at scale. Yet the buzz at SmallSat Symposium in Mountain View can’t mask a sobering reality: data gets stuck on the way down ...
The New Orbital Guard: Commercial Tech Steps Up as the Pentagon’s Watchtower
Dispatch from SmallSat Symposium. The mood at the SmallSat Symposium has shifted from anxiety to resolve. While previous years were defined by fear of orbital overcrowding, this year marks the moment the industry decided to act. Experts at the Space ...
