Payload
• Douglas Gorman
Muhammad Hunain of Melagen Labs says spacecraft are still shielded with aluminum, while rad-hardened electronics remain too expensive to produce at the scale the space economy demands. His comments frame radiation protection and component costs as persistent constraints on scaling spacecraft production.
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Proposals to move data centers into orbit seek access to abundant solar energy and room to expand, including for military operations. But concentrating computing infrastructure in space could expose it to missile attacks, jamming and cyberattacks, raising questions about the security and resilience of the concept.
Muhammad Hunain of Melagen Labs says spacecraft are still shielded with aluminum, while rad-hardened electronics remain too expensive to produce at the scale the space economy demands. His comments frame radiation protection and component costs as persistent constraints on scaling spacecraft production.
SpaceX agreed to acquire up to 14 megahertz of paired 800-megahertz spectrum from Grain Management, adding to its push into wireless service. Bernstein downgraded AT&T, citing pressure from SpaceX, while Morningstar raised its uncertainty ratings for AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon to high from medium.
Pasha Kravtsov says he wanted to join True Anomaly after a former colleague told him the company was working to counter a recently launched Russian military satellite. The account points to the company’s involvement in space-security operations, though the report provides no further details on the effort.
Investment in the space economy is projected to top $100 billion in 2026 for the first time, driven by SpaceX’s expected blockbuster IPO, defense spending and investment in space infrastructure. A looming shortage of launch capacity is also drawing capital toward alternative rockets and helping satellite companies prepare for deployment delays.
Australian non-Earth imagery company HEO released images Oct. 13 of Satellogic’s Merlin.01 Earth-observation satellite, captured days after its launch. The release documents HEO’s ability to observe a newly launched commercial satellite in orbit and offers a visual update on Merlin.01’s deployment.
The U.S. Army stress-tested Amazon’s nascent proliferated satellite communications network to assess its ability to deliver high-speed connectivity to soldiers in the field. The demonstration marks a step in Amazon Leo’s push into military communications as it develops a rival to SpaceX’s Starlink.
High activity
Day-one discussions in Riyadh offered five lessons for Europe, drawing on perspectives from France’s ANFR, the UK’s Ofcom, Ookla, the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs and Foradori. The issues included the IRIS² satellite program, direct-to-device connectivity, spectrum negotiations ahead of the 2027 World Radiocommunication Conference and space security.
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