Magazine

Welcome to the 40th Anniversary Edition of Via Satellite where we celebrate an absolutely remarkable 40 years. It is hard to believe this magazine started in 1986 and 40 years […]

Over a 40-year history, Via Satellite has told countless stories of the space and satellite industry. From its first edition in 1986 to today, the magazine’s writers and editors and […]

Autonomous systems, ubiquitous sensors, and AI-optimized targeting are positioned to transform tomorrow’s warfighting domain, where the ability to see, decide, and act first may rest with constellations in orbit rather […]

Talk to space industry aficionados about their vision of the not so distant future and you’ll hear about a world of science fiction turned reality. Fleets of orbital data centers […]

Viasat celebrates its 40-year anniversary in 2026, alongside Via Satellite. The enormous changes in the last four decades begat enormous opportunity, and fortunately Viasat has been able to convert opportunities […]

Happy 40th Birthday to Via Satellite! In 2025, ~4,500 satellites were launched into space globally – a greater than twenty times increase compared to an average, annual launch cadence 40 […]

In 1977, the Ariane development program was progressing smoothly, with the goal set at the beginning of 1973 to execute the first qualification flight during 1979. The initial qualification program […]

When Mark asked me to contribute to Via Satellite’s 40th anniversary edition, I was honored. I also had an uncomfortable realization: I’ve been working in wireless communications for roughly as […]

When I first entered the commercial space industry in 2012, we spent a lot of time explaining why small satellites mattered and the concept of disruptive innovation: a technology that […]

Forty years is a long time in any industry. In the satellite sector, it is almost a lifetime. When Via Satellite began chronicling this industry four decades ago, satellite was […]

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 […]

Back for the third year, Via Satellite recognizes a new class of 25 Rising Stars — a group of young professionals shaping the future of the space and satellite industry. […]

Over the last half century, space-based assets have helped to provide terrestrial users with ubiquitous services like broadband communications and position, navigation and timing (PNT). But although we think of […]

There’s no escaping the three-body problem—not in physics, but in project management. The classic constraints always apply: good, fast, cheap. Except in space, where there’s a fourth variable: flexibility. Today, […]

There is a familiar point in almost every spacecraft program when somebody finally asks where the heat is supposed to go. By then, the structure is complete, the electronics have […]

For decades, military space was the business of a few select nations. Reconnaissance and secure communications rested on a handful of exquisite, school-bus-sized satellites that had exquisite capabilities but likewise […]

The annual Via Satellite 10 Smallsat Startups to Watch list highlights companies from around the world in the early stages of funding (Series A or earlier) that are on the […]

Welcome to the annual Via Smallsat edition — where Via Satellite rebrands to focus on the smallsat industry. We are thrilled to present the third group of Rising Stars, a […]

As Via Satellite marks its 40-year anniversary in 2026, we’re celebrating with a special feature: 40 People Who Shaped the Satellite Industry, to mark visionaries both past and present that […]

The race to put computing infrastructure in orbit is accelerating as hyperscalers across cloud, AI, and space compete to see who will emerge winners in what many believe will fuel […]

The date is April 10. Iran has closed the Strait of Hormuz in retaliation to strikes by the U.S. and Israel, triggering a regional war. An infamous very large crude […]

The satellite industry can be a hype machine at times as we search for the next ‘big thing’ in space. It is understandable. We work in an industry that pushes […]

Regional operators are reinventing themselves. With the rise of megaconstellations and consolidation among global satellite operators — regional operators are rethinking their approach and turning toward orchestration and integration, while […]

According to the 2023 Space Sector Skills Survey by the Space Skills Alliance, 52 percent of space organizations in the U.K. have skills gaps in their current workforce. For 72 […]

Satellite Earth Observation (EO) is increasingly recognized as a strategic instrument for meeting Europe’s defense needs and for ensuring the green and digital transitions. From monitoring droughts and forest fires […]

We’re closing out this edition of Via Satellite in the days after SATShow Week, before we head to Space Symposium. One of my biggest takeaways from SATELLITE x GovMilSpace is […]

Rising interest rates have made for a tough fundraising environment for space startups in the past year and a half. This environment has put the value of business cases in […]

Space may not officially be the United States’ 17th critical infrastructure sector. But in practice, experts across government, academia, and industry say it already functions as one — deeply embedded […]

In space, cybersecurity is hard. Many of the strategies cyber defenders rely on daily to protect terrestrial networks, like centrally managed anomaly detection, regular patching of emergent software vulnerabilities, and […]

In the late 1960s, NASA began studying the principle of a reusable “space tug” system, as part of the Space Transportation System (STS), then envisioned as a crewed space vehicle […]