September 2025
Why the global space sector needs urgent regulation
... carrying capacity of a smaller number of constellations useable by all. The regulatory gap in space is real. With over 8000 Starlink satellites in orbit (as of July 2025) and thousands more planned, we risk turning low Earth orbit into a traffic...
October 2025
Software defined satellites and the ground segment
... massive network of ground stations. The approach, long used for constellations such as Iridium and more recently by Starlink, brings the promise of faster data transfer, network redundancy and better resource management across satellite systems...
October 2025
High-altitude platforms - the search for an optimised legal framework
... in under-developed locations. Whereas 40-60 ms latency is generally considered acceptable, by operators of LEO satellite systems such as Starlink and Kuiper, such systems cannot compete with the area-specific signal strength, comprehensive reach and...
April 2026
Robotics is the future of space labour
... robots better than ever. The rollout of optical, laser-based communication networks in low Earth orbit, namely Starlink, has reduced latency to mere tens of milliseconds. Historically, an RF signal would be transmitted from the ground to the faraway...
May 2026
Satellite brightness and the mitigation challenge
.... SpaceX, to its credit, has moved furthest. The company installed sun visors on its VisorSat models of Starlink and photometric studies confirmed real improvement. Characteristic magnitudes dropped from 4.7 to 6.2, which represents a roughly four...
September 2026
Spacecraft protection and resilience - a convergent approach
... a minor geomagnetic storm thickened the upper atmosphere and increased drag by about 50 percent, dragging 38 newly launched Starlink satellites back into the atmosphere only days after launch. Radiation-induced faults are a routine and...
