Peter B. de Selding

The MYRIAD project, coordinated by GMV, has officially launched! Funded by the European Defence Fund, this 48-month EU initiative brings together 9 partners to combine #AI & satellite data for advanced defense capabilities. ow.ly/FkUE50YwhPj #SpaceTech #DefenceInnovation

🛰️ @NEC is creating Japan's first optical communication satellite constellation with AMD tech. The company will demonstrate high-speed network routing in space using AMD Versal adaptive SoCs to provide high-performance signal processing of data transmissions within the constellation to help improve connectivity on Earth. Read the news: nec.com/en/press/20260…

We are thrilled to announce Dr. Barbara Frei-Spreiter as the new #CEO of RUAG International and Beyond Gravity, starting April 7, 2026. She brings world-class expertise in high-tech transformation and industrialization to lead us into our next chapter. lnkd.in/ekEWr_EY

.@ESA to shut down Mars Earth Return Orbiter after US budget decision; will meet @NASA next week on Artemis status; ESA-@defis_eu Iris2 negotiations with @SES @Eutelsat @Hispasat to wind up late April; ESA Launcher Challenge adapts to @orbexspace exit.spaceintelreport.com/esa-nasa-to-ad…

We have shipped our 20kW satellite - Gravitas - to the launch site. Given the supply chain to operate at this power regime doesn’t exist, we had to build 85% of the satellite in-house. This includes building our own large solar arrays, high power propulsion system, large batteries, large reaction wheels and much more. This launch will represent the first time all of these systems are test on orbit together. Internally at @K2SpaceCo, we’ve thought about a few levels of success for this mission - we expect mission success to fall somewhere along this spectrum: - Tier 1 (Baseline mission success): Deploy solar arrays, establish comms, operate the satellite —> we’ve now got an operational 20kW satellite on orbit - Tier 2: Power on the payloads, activate the 20kW propulsion system —> we’re completing payload missions and have fired the highest power hall thruster ever flown on orbit - Tier 3: Orbit raise the satellite, test performance in high radiation environments (like 2,000km) —> we’ve collected massive amounts of data on the performance of the platform in very very difficult environments More than anything, Gravitas represents the start of an iterative journey, where we will take the data we receive from this first satellite and incorporate it into the next wave of satellites launching next year. We’re excited to start this journey, we’ll report back as we get more data. Thanks to Tim for covering our story on TechCrunch techcrunch.com/2026/03/19/k2-…

Industry first: Multi-orbit tactical terminals certified for SES O3b mPOWER. ALL.SPACE has completed certification of the first multi-orbit, next-generation tactical terminal capability on the SES O3b mPOWER network. 👉🏼 all.pulse.ly/mjx0rgdahl @SESSpaceDefense

Small-GEO sat builder @Swissto12, now w/ 7 sats in production (2 unnamed), uses @ESA investment to expand production capacity. Goal is 8 HummingSats/year. @SES_Satellites @viasat.spaceintelreport.com/swissto12-usin…

.@NATO to commercial space: We're ready to move quickly on multi-orbit, multi-frequency and other fronts with contracts that spend years in our bureaucracy before closing. @NCIAgency @govsatcom @defis_eu.spaceintelreport.com/nato-seeks-to-…

German/UK launcher startup @HyImpulseTech to conduct suborbital flight from Scotland's @SaxaVord_Space late this yr, its 1st launch after 2024 suborbital flight from Australia's Koonibba. Co is not part of @esa Euro launcher challenge but has received ESA Boost! funding.

@MDA_space to build/maintain 3 ground-based optical space surveillance sensors by 2028 to complement current 150-kg Sapphire sat, launched in 2013. Valued at CAD 32M ($23.4M), it's part of CAD 375M @NationalDefence Surveillance of Space 2 program, to include Sapphire successor.

The Russian SIGINT/SATCOM station in Vienna is intercepting C-band communications from the Eutelsat 3B, Eutelsat 10B, SES-5, and Rascom QAF1 satellites, which serve Africa and connect to UN offices, embassies, oil fields, and military bases. That’s not all. Olymp-K2, a Russian satellite capable of proximity operations (RPO - Rendezvous and Proximity Operations), is performing unusual maneuvers instead of remaining in a fixed orbital position. RPO enables it to approach Western satellites, monitor them, and even disrupt their functioning, seize control of them, or sabotage them. Owing to its close proximity, Olymp-K2 can intercept unencrypted command-and-control signals used to manage satellite positioning, antennas, and data handling. A kinetic anti-satellite strike, or close-proximity operations used to disable or seize control of a satellite, could, depending on their scale and effects, amount to a prohibited use of force and, in an extreme case, potentially an armed attack. The entire operation appears to be tightly coordinated - the station in Vienna intercepts data from ground links, while Olymp-K2 targets command-and-control signals in outer space. Together, they form a two-layered espionage network, giving Russia deep access to Western military and diplomatic communications in Africa. My assessment in @just_security justsecurity.org/86823/the-oute…

At K2 Space, we're Building Bigger to deploy the largest satellites ever on orbit. Our GNC team, led by Nicholas Rahaim, is responsible for guiding and controlling the spacecraft, and writing the algorithms it needs to operate on its own from space. Gravitas will give the full system flight heritage, and validate how we control the spacecraft through the dynamic challenges introduced by its massive, 18m flexible solar arrays. It will also serve as a testbed for our orbit raise capability, where we begin validating the propulsion system and the algorithms that command it to take the spacecraft from A to B.

NVIDIA's entry into space computing is a significant moment for the sector. nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/space-com…

Kepler Commissions First NVIDIA-Powered “Cloud Infrastructure” Across Optical Constellation Kepler Communications announced the successful commissioning of distributed on-orbit computing across its Tranche 1 optical data relay constellation on Monday, March 16, 2026. This milestone transitions Kepler’s network from a high-speed data transport layer into a scalable, cloud-native processing environment, allowing customers to execute AI-driven workloads directly in orbit rather than relying on ground-based data centers. #MissionsConstellations #SmallSat satnews.com/2026/03/17/kep…

.@NanoAvionics books contract w/ Korea's #FlexellSpace to provide solar arrays for #HanwhaSystems sovereign LEO constellation, outlines expansion in Lithuania. spaceintelreport.com/kongsberg-nano…

.@Telesat: Lightspeed constellation to have 500 MHz of mil-Ka-band, about 25% of total capacity, to meet surging defense interest. 1st 2 sats launch in Dec, with 96 in orbit by end 2027, commercial service starts spring 2028. @MDA_space @SatixFy_satcom @NationalDefence.

BREAKING: Everyone is watching the Strait of Hormuz for oil and fertilizer. Almost nobody has noticed that it is also shutting down MRI machines, semiconductor fabs, and the global aerospace supply chain. Helium. The second lightest element in the universe. No substitute exists for it. You cannot synthesize it. You cannot replace it. And roughly one-third of the world’s supply just went offline. Qatar produces 30 to 33 percent of global helium as a byproduct of LNG processing at Ras Laffan, home to the largest helium production facilities on Earth. When the Hormuz blockade triggered LNG force majeure declarations and attacks hit Qatari infrastructure, the helium stopped flowing with it. Prices have doubled in spot markets. And helium has a property that makes this crisis structurally different from oil, fertilizer, or any other commodity caught behind the strait. It evaporates. Continuously. Even in sealed containers, helium boils off. The global supply chain operates on roughly 45 days of buffer before existing inventory simply ceases to exist. You cannot stockpile helium the way you stockpile crude oil in salt caverns or grain in silos. If the supply stops for six weeks, the buffer is gone. Not depleted. Gone. Returned to the atmosphere where it is too diffuse to economically recapture. This is why the industries that depend on helium are facing a crisis that no financial instrument can solve. Semiconductor manufacturing requires ultra-pure helium for wafer cooling in lithography and for leak detection in sub-5-nanometre chip fabrication. TSMC, Samsung, and Intel cannot produce advanced processors without it. Every AI chip, every smartphone processor, every data centre GPU in the current generation traces its manufacturing lineage through a helium-cooled process. If fabs run dry, the production lines stop. Not slow. Stop. MRI machines require liquid helium to cool superconducting magnets to near absolute zero. Hospitals cannot substitute another gas. When helium supply tightens, MRI availability falls. During previous shortages, hospitals rationed scans. A sustained one-third supply cut puts diagnostic imaging capacity at risk across every healthcare system that depends on magnetic resonance. Aerospace depends on helium for purging rocket fuel systems, pressurising tanks, and testing for leaks in systems where failure means explosion. NASA, SpaceX, ULA, and every launch provider in the Western world runs on helium. Fibre optic cable manufacturing requires helium atmospheres. Quantum computing research requires helium-3 isotopes for cryogenic cooling. The US is the world’s largest helium producer and has some buffer capacity. Algeria and Russia produce meaningful volumes. Overland rerouting from Qatar through Oman and Saudi Arabia is theoretically possible but logistically slow and capacity-limited. None of these alternatives can replace one-third of global supply within the 45-day evaporation window that defines the crisis timeline. The same 21-mile strait that is starving the food system is now threatening the technological infrastructure of modern civilization. The fertilizer trapped behind Hormuz determines whether four billion people eat. The helium trapped behind Hormuz determines whether the chips powering the AI revolution get manufactured, whether cancer patients receive diagnostic scans, and whether rockets carrying communications satellites reach orbit. One chokepoint. Two invisible supply chains. Both irreplaceable. Both operating on biological or physical deadlines that no ceasefire retroactively extends. The world built petroleum reserves. It never built fertilizer reserves. It never built helium reserves either. The pattern keeps repeating. The lesson keeps being ignored. Full analysis: open.substack.com/pub/shanakaans…

Musk wants to launch Starship 1,000 times a year. Each launch requires 3,744 tons of liquid oxygen. At that cadence, SpaceX alone would consume 36% of all the oxygen the United States produces. During COVID, hospitals bought so much oxygen that SpaceX couldn't fuel its rockets. Gwynne Shotwell asked a conference audience to email her if they had any to spare. That was at 31 launches a year. They did 165 last year. SpaceX chose stainless steel over carbon fiber because it's abundant. But liquid oxygen has no substitute. When solar demand exploded, polysilicon went from $40 to $475 per kilogram in four years. Oxygen supply faces the same constraint: Air separation plants cost hundreds of millions and take years to permit and build. Reusable rockets made launches cheap. The propellant supply chain is the next bottleneck.

A new layer of Earth intelligence comes to Saudi Arabia with @NeoSpaceGroup! Pixxel is partnering with NSG UP42, The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s first national Earth Observation data platform, to deliver 5m hyperspectral imagery across 135+ spectral bands, from our Firefly constellation, unlocking deeper insights into surface composition, material properties, and environmental changes at scale. Read more below 👇

INNOSPACE has identified the cause of the mission termination of its first commercial HANBIT-Nano launch through a joint investigation with Brazil’s aerospace accident investigation authority, CENIPA. The cause was determined through analysis of flight data, video records, and more than 300 recovered debris pieces. Approximately 33 seconds after liftoff, gas leakage occurred at the forward section of the first-stage hybrid rocket combustion chamber assembly, leading to a rupture of the combustion chamber. The investigation found that the leakage was caused by insufficient compression of sealing components during the on-site reassembly of the forward chamber plug as part of launch preparation activities in Brazil. INNOSPACE is strengthening its assembly processes and quality management procedures while implementing component improvements and additional verification. Following launch authorization from the Korea Aerospace Administration(KASA), the company plans to conduct a follow-up launch in Brazil in the third quarter of 2026. Based on the technical findings from this investigation, INNOSPACE will continue to enhance the reliability of its launch vehicles and improve mission success rates. ✨ 🔗 Learn more: bit.ly/4bdlkwS #NewSpace #SpaceLaunch #LaunchVehicle #RocketEngineering #SpaceTechnology #SpaceIndustry #SPACEWARD