When humans set their sights on the Moon more than a half-century ago, no one could have predicted how far government would take that vision — or how much farther and faster industry could carry it.
I have spent eight years leading a space company, but my connection to this industry goes back much further. As an undergraduate student, roughly around the time this magazine published its first issue, I did research alongside Canada’s original six astronauts. I then spent decades in defense before coming back to space full time. So when people ask how the industry has changed, I answer across two eras — the one I witnessed early on, when space was still primarily a government endeavor, and the one I have lived through for the last eight years, watching it become something else entirely: a global, disruptive market.
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The conviction I carried coming back was that this market was transforming to become an economy in its own right. One that will endure. I would argue this idea has not yet fully taken hold, even with the rapid commercialization we have witnessed in recent years. While the Artemis mission roused enthusiasm and will continue to generate excitement, space is still largely invisible to most people around the world. This very real economic zone is tangible to us in the industry, but the rest of the world still has to be convinced.
Tectonic Shifts in the Satellite Sector
The single development that has done the most to reshape this industry is the shift in who leads execution. From government-sponsored space agencies, the onus is now on the commercial private sector. This change is closely followed in impact by the productization of space technology with the development of procurement capabilities and its digitization. Flying, landing, and reusing rockets. Detecting objects on Earth using satellites working in tandem to first image wide areas, then zoom in to capture higher-resolution images in near real-time. Constellations of satellites, all of the same design, produced through high-volume manufacturing. Operating agile space communication networks thanks to dynamic beamforming. None of that was possible just a decade ago.
This last shift has far-reaching consequences. We can now build networks in space that perform almost as well as those on land with an ease of deployment thanks to new global, critical infrastructure. That combination means we can bring data connectivity and direct-to-cell connectivity to every corner of the Earth.
In my lifetime, I expect people everywhere will have equal access to the internet — and be able to get an education, start a business, run a business, receive critical health care, be warned of natural hazards, and call for help in an emergency. This will make lives safer, communities more resilient, and countries more sovereign. That is still being built, but it will be the biggest change this industry produces for society. It has also blurred the line between our industry and telecommunications: non-terrestrial networks (NTN) are now included in the 3GPP standards for mobile networks, and I expect partnership, even mergers, between space and telecom companies to evolve.
Decades to Reach the Next Frontier
It may seem like it took a long lull to get to where we are now, but understandably, technology invented through a government program does not really take off until industry finds the means to commercialize it. This takes time. We put satellites up for government communications and broadcasting and telecommunications industries emerged to build on that capability. Government space stations have run science experiments for decades. Now, we are heading toward industrial parks and power plants in space, companies mining minerals, manufacturing novel chemicals and developing new pharmaceutical drugs. Add space tourism, and space becomes accessible to the average consumer too. It just took time for space to stop being an expensive government program and become an affordable and reliable place for industry to operate.
That is what I see emerging as the Earth-to-Moon economic zone: a real, distinct location where we can do business, innovate in ways we cannot on Earth, find resources we can bring back, and build new economies and habitats — we are essentially discovering a new continent. Many people do not see it yet, partly because we are still shaped by 1969: we went to the Moon, did it a few times, then stopped for 50 years. But we already rely heavily on space in our daily lives and the next stage will only deepen that reliance.
What Will Decide Who Wins
Artificial intelligence will matter here, notably to provide the horsepower necessary to manage in-space assets. But beyond that, the biggest factors determining which companies will come out on top are accessibility and mobility in space. By that, I mean launch capabilities expanding to the point where rockets go up multiple times a day worldwide, and real advances in propulsion giving us rapid maneuverability across orbits and out to the Moon and Mars. Competitive speed in advancing these technologies will separate the winners.
That is how we have approached MDA Space’s own growth: broad exposure across the parts of this industry where we can genuinely lead — in geointelligence with Earth observation satellites and AI-based analytics, in robotics and rover technology supporting advanced space infrastructure, and in the high-volume production of communications and Earth observation satellites for Low- and Medium-Earth Orbit. That breadth lets us move with the fastest-accelerating parts of the market while making steady progress in the others.
What gets less attention is the backstory behind that growth. We are often recognized for the technology, but while building it we have also been scaling the company itself to meet this moment: from $400 million a year to $800 million to $1.6 billion, on our way to more than $3 billion, hiring 700, 800, 900, to 1,000 people a year, high rates of incremental growth while holding the same profitability throughout. In the next few quarters, once we close the acquisitions underway, we expect to have more than 5,000 employees across more than 40 sites in over 20 countries serving over 14,000 customers. None of that happens by accident, and it says the most about whether a company is built to last, not just to grow quickly.
In the next few years, the companies that come out ahead will be those agile enough to jump on the fastest-moving parts of this market, disciplined enough to keep growing profitably while they do it, and clear-eyed enough to treat the Earth-to-Moon economy as exactly that — its own economic zone, in the same way Europe is an economic zone. With its own momentum, its own logic, its own trajectory. VS
Mike Greenley is the CEO of MDA Space
Photo credit: A NASA image of the Earth setting captured by the Artemis II crew and transmitted via laser communication
