Features

After a behemoth month of space-tech investment in February ($1.7b), global venture investment in space-tech fell back to earth in March with only $93.96m invested. Europe held three of the four largest investments this month: Multiverse Computing in Spain (€25m), Mbryonics in Ireland (€17.5m), and Blackwave in Germany ($6.6m), with South Africa’s Simera Sense (€13.5m) rounding out the top-four.

On 12 March 2024, the Prague Security Studies Institute hosted a public online guest lecture with Dr. John Klein, Senior Fellow and Strategist at the Falcon Research, Inc. on the topic of “Space and Irregular Warfare”. In Part 2, we will review some burning questions covered in the lecture Q&A and how Dr. Klein comprehensively answered them, going the extra mile to provide advice for practical implementation.

On 12 March 2024, the Prague Security Studies Institute hosted a public online guest lecture with Dr. John Klein, Senior Fellow and Strategist at the Falcon Research, Inc. on the topic of “Space and Irregular Warfare”. In Part 1, we will review the key concepts that underwrite the theory and practice of irregular warfare in space.

The 2024 State of the Union Address was given by the 46th President of the United States, Joe Biden, on March 7, 2024, at 9:00 p.m. EST, in the chamber of the House of Representatives to the 118th Congress. Since it took place only two weeks after the “successful” landing of NASA CLPS Intuitive Machine M1 Odysseus on the Moon, and as anticipated during a re-election campaign, many were curious about how the President would capitalize on recent US geopolitical and economic forays in space. Why not even expect the presence of NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, astronauts, and space CEOs, among the honoured invitees? But while the SOTU address did cover essential domestic political ground, there was not one word about space! But how is that even possible?!

It has now been a week since SpaceX's IFT 3 took off and kept us in suspense. All space enthusiasts around the globe are eagerly waiting for the promised new era in which access to space becomes the new normal, in which prices will fall to a fraction of their current level and new business models will emerge.

Outer space presents myriad concepts for jointly creating inspiration and opportunity as well as challenges. With over 8,000 satellites currently in Earth orbit, reliance on satellite services for communications, imaging, and navigation has become ubiquitous to enhancing the quality of life on Earth. In fact, satellite communication has been deemed a public good since the early 1960s, which has enabled public reliance on space-based telecommunications. Other key satellite applications include weather forecasting, climate monitoring, and navigation support for global transportation.

To say that the space sector has seen tremendous growth in the last decade has become somewhat of a platitude. Countless reports show impressive growth and a positive outlook for the future, even suggesting a new ‘golden age’ for the industry. There is also a wide consensus that for the space economy to reach the promise of morphing into a multi-trillion-dollar valuation in the decade to come, we need a strong, resilient, and innovative sector. The health of the space sector today and tomorrow will thus be key to achieving the goals that the space community wishes to see in the years to come.

What is China's position on space resource activities? The following is a commentary on the Chinese approach following its submission to the Working Group on Legal Aspects of Space Resource Activities of the Legal Subcommittee of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS).

There’s been no shortage of recent attempts at clarifying what the problems are with the definitions of success or failure for a Moon mission. Bearing in mind the pressure applied on CEOs, leadership, and crews of many a lunar-aiming venture business, and equally knowing perfectly well how challenging is to land on the Moon, it is nevertheless important for the insiders of the sector  to develop considerations worthy of lunar stakeholders as they sort out their concerns.

If the space-tech industry was lumbering towards the launchpad in January ($475m globally), then February was liftoff: space-tech startups raised a whopping $1.7b in funding in February.The month was bolstered by a massive $932m public-private investment into China’s Shanghai Spacecom Satellite Technology (SSST), but also featured a $355m investment into RocketLabs (US) and a €85m investment into UnseenLabs (France). These megadeals join 30 smaller deals in a historically strong month for spacetech startups worldwide.