The 25th Edition of Novaspace’s Government Space Programs report notes a US$ 137.4 Bil.  government space market in 2025, signaling a structural shift toward defense-driven investment and commercial procurement models. Defense now accounts for 54% of global spending (US$ 73.5B), surpassing civil budgets (US$ 63.7B) and cementing space as a core national security domain alongside land, air, maritime, cyber, and information. 

by Elisabeth Tweedie

When SpaceX launched Starlink in 2019, the industry changed forever.  Geosynchronous satellites (GEOs) had long been the dominant, indeed until the launch of O3b service in 2014, the only way, to access commercial space-based broadband communication services. The first generation of O3b, a medium-earth orbit (MEO) constellation had limited capacity and only served a small segment of enterprise satellite users.  Starlink as a low-earth orbit constellation (LEO), offered a very different service.  Due to significantly increased capacity provided by thousands of satellites, coupled with the lower bandwidth prices made possible by a vertically integrated supply chain, consumer broadband service became a viable service from non-geostationary satellites (NGSO).  However, with service being provided on a “best effort” basis, few enterprise customers were interested.