The space industry has long been interested in the opportunities offered by solar sails. Developing the analogy between space and maritime exploration, early space scientists and fiction writers have thought of concepts that could harness “the wind from the sun” as Arthur C. Clarke calls it in his short story “Sunjammer” from 1964. But three…

Held in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, COP-27 came with its lot of successes and disillusions, among which a lost opportunity to address the pressing issue of curbing the use of fossil fuels. Yet several advances now point towards a greater collaboration between rich and developing economies, and just as it has always been at the rendez-vous…

The Ukrainian crisis has shed light on the criticality of space assets for military operations, with the hacking of Viasat’s KA-SAT numbing the ability of the Ukrainian armed forces in the early hours of the conflict. This episode illustrates how satellites transitioned from being supporting capabilities for ground operations to strategic warfare assets of their…

Both long standing and recent trends in the space industry have shed light on new needs for financing space activities. The development of new ventures in the space sector has created new demands for financing while displaying peculiar characteristics shared by only a handful of other industries. The level of capital expenditure intensity in the…