New Space EconomyBusiness, Technology, and Trends

In 2024, the Nuclear Threat Initiative noted that open-source tools now give analysts some ability to monitor submarine fleets. That public record points mainly to submarine bases, surfaced boats, missile launches, shipyard activity, and other associated signals. It does not show a dependable orbital method for directly finding and identifying a deeply submerged submarine moving through the open ocean.

Disappearing stars sound like science fiction, but they are a real subject in modern astronomy. Researchers use the term to describe stars or star-like points of light that appeared in older sky surveys but are missing, dimmer, or unconfirmed in modern observations. The field sits between ordinary stellar physics, survey-data problems, rare cosmic events, and more speculative ideas about advanced technology.

On January 28, 1963, the Sea Dragon Concept study entered the historical record as one of the largest launch vehicle ideas ever examined under a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) contract. The Sea Dragon launch vehicle was not a finished rocket waiting for a launch date. It was a proposed two-stage ocean-launched booster designed by Aerojet-General under the leadership of Robert Truax, with review work tied to Space Technology Laboratories, the organization later associated with TRW. The baseline concept described a rocket roughly 150 m tall, 23 m in diameter, and capable on paper of sending about 550 metric tons to low Earth orbit.

Apple’s For All Mankind premiered on November 1, 2019, as one of the first original scripted dramas tied to the launch of Apple TV+, and by April 29, 2026, it had grown into a five-season alternate-history saga with a sixth and final season already announced. The current fifth season premiered on March 27, 2026, with a 10-episode weekly release plan scheduled through May 29, 2026. Apple also announced that the related Soviet-perspective spinoff Star City would debut on May 29, 2026, the same date as the season five finale.

Start-up space investment reached $10.9 billion in 2025 across 235 deals and 208 funding recipients, according to BryceTech’s Start-Up Space 2026 report on private sector space investment activity in 2025. That total marked the strongest year since the 2021 peak and moved the sector above the lower funding levels recorded from 2022 through 2024. Venture capital supplied most of the money, with 214 venture deals accounting for 79% of funds, and initial public offerings supplied another $1.3 billion through four transactions.

On December 16, 2024, the European Commission signed the IRIS² concession contract, and ESA tied the programme directly to European autonomy, resilience, and secure governmental connectivity. That decision captured a wider shift. Sovereign space capability is now less about prestige missions and more about dependable control over services that support daily state functions. Governments increasingly want trusted access to satellite communications, navigation signals, Earth observation data, weather inputs, and launch options without excessive exposure to foreign political decisions, export controls, wartime disruption, or single-supplier risk.

On July 20, 1969, Apollo 11 returned lunar surface photographs with a black sky and no visible stars. The phrase “why aren't any stars visible in photos taken in space or on the moon” points to a photography problem, not an astronomy problem. NASA’s Apollo still photography record shows that the lunar surface work used modified Hasselblad cameras, and the mission’s lunar photography report documents the camera systems and exposure ranges carried on the flight. A sunlit spacesuit, reflective regolith, and the bright exterior of the Lunar Module delivered far more light to the film than the background stars did. That brightness gap was enormous, and Apollo photographers had to protect detail in the subject matter NASA actually cared about recording. (NASA)

The French space agency CNES has published a formal call for the design, development, and installation of a fully functional “Onboard Kitchen for Space Exploration”, as detailed in its official public consultation on the CNES procurement platform. The prototype will be built to rigorous specifications and installed at CNES’s Toulouse headquarters for five years of continuous testing - preparing Europe for the day when astronauts cook real meals during multi-year journeys to Mars and beyond.

January 8, 2024 put the buried in space market into public view when Vulcan lifted memorial payloads connected to Celestis and the broader Peregrine Mission One effort. In commercial practice, “buried in space” does not mean whole-body burial off Earth. It means paid memorial services that send a symbolic portion of cremated remains, and sometimes DNA, on suborbital, orbital, lunar, or deep-space missions. That distinction matters because the market is selling ritual, symbolism, destination, and technical execution more than it is selling traditional burial in the terrestrial sense.

The U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command has awarded its first Commercial Solutions Opening prototype contracts under the Kronos program to MapLarge and Leidos, marking a key milestone in efforts to modernize space intelligence and secure decision advantage in an increasingly contested orbital domain. The contracts, valued at $499,828 for MapLarge and $1.43 million for Leidos, will fund the development of an integrated prototype focused on enhancing battlespace characterization, intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance operations, and multi-source data fusion across the Kronos enterprise.

On April 27, 2026, Inc. covered a new Meta energy move that links artificial intelligence (AI), space infrastructure, and electric power procurement. The Meta AI space power story centers on an agreement with Overview Energy to reserve up to 1 gigawatt (GW) of space solar capacity, with the startup’s system designed to collect solar energy in orbit and transmit it to existing solar projects on Earth as low-intensity near-infrared light.

On March 18, 2026, the U.S. Space Force announced operational acceptance for Enhanced Polar System-Recapitalization, extending protected Arctic communications into the 2030s. That decision captures the central shift in satellite services for military organizations: a single exquisite satellite no longer covers enough mission risk, geography, or traffic demand. Modern forces now split communications, sensing, and navigation support across protected geostationary systems, medium-orbit capacity, and proliferated low Earth orbit constellations that can keep functioning even after jamming, cyber pressure, or local orbital loss.

Starlink Maritime now advertises ocean access through Global Priority service, and the current Performance Kit is marketed with download capability of more than 400 Mbps. That headline figure has changed expectations, yet satellite services for yacht owners no longer fit neatly into a single purchase. Owners are usually buying four things at once: primary internet, backup communications, safety capability, and onboard network management. A boat that only needs coastal browsing can often live with a far simpler setup than a yacht crossing oceans with guests, crew payroll, remote work, and charter-grade media demand.

On April 20, 2026, the Office of the Chief Data and Artificial Intelligence Officer for the Department of the Air Force (DAF) publicly released two foundational documents: the Department of the Air Force Artificial Intelligence Strategy and the Department of the Air Force Data Strategy. These strategies, announced via an official Air Force press release, outline a unified roadmap to transform the DAF into an “AI-first force.” By treating data as the “ammunition of modern warfare” and AI as a decisive force multiplier, the DAF aims to deliver unmatched decision advantage, operational agility, and technological superiority against near-peer adversaries.

MDA Space (TSX: MDA) recorded revenues of C$499 million in 2025, a 44% year-over-year increase, with a year-end backlog of C$4.0 billion. That performance reflects the broader momentum in Canada's commercial space sector, which employs tens of thousands of workers and generated research and development (R&D) expenditures of $593 million in 2022, an 8% increase from the year prior. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) account for roughly 93% of all Canadian space companies by count, though the 30 largest organizations collectively produce approximately 94% of total sector revenues, with satellite communications representing roughly 75% of the industry's output.