NATO holds out hand to the commercial space sector

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NATO has agreed to open its wider portfolio, and space and defense players are likely to line up. The brand new commercial space strategy of the military coalition adds the icing to the top.

Now inked, on the vocal demand from US President Donald Trump, is a commitment to more than the defense expenses of members of the 2% to 5% of their gross domestic alliance by 2035. Some 3.5% of this funding should be channeled towards a “pure” defense, such as the remaining 1.5% should be placed for the security infrastructure.

In particular, NATO has recognized space as one of the five “operational” areas alongside air, land, maritime and cyberspace Back in 2019. Two years later, he concluded that offensives towards, from or in space can be a threat to the alliance and trigger the infamous article 5 prescribing an attack on a member as an attack on all. Upon entering the small print, the military coalition should publish its new spatial doctrine 2026.

That the allies – in particular a reluctant Spain – can or really reach a target of 5% are in the air. Take a look at NATO figuresOnly Poland came anywhere to allocate this slice of its GDP for defense last year, at 4.12%, while Washington itself has spent only 3.38% of its economic production for this purpose. Overall, there is ground to cover. In Europe, writing was a few months on the wall, after the European Union block of 27 members proposed to mobilize 800 billion euros (936 billion dollars) for defense expenses in March, while Germany relaxed its budgetary debt rules to facilitate more purchases related to security. The United Kingdom began the year with a commitment to raise defense expenses to 2.5% by April 2027, and Prime Minister Keir Starmer has since Rush to engage A goal of 5% will be achieved by 2035.

Communication, navigation and surveillance are obvious use of spatial defense capacities, and it is before thinking of making war on the stars. The ambitious defense shield of the golden dome of Trump – that its administration charges $ 75 billion, but some observers say they are costing several times – already has people like Boeing, Lockheed Martin and even European players in the running for a piece of budgetary action. Most recently, the supplier of satellite images, Planet Labs, won a seven-digit contract to provide surveillance and intelligence capacities to NATO itself.

And it is the state of play among the spatial companies victims of defense before reviewing the controversial subject to know if the Starlink of Elon Musk can be successfully dethroned from Ukraine, where he facilitated access to Internet and communication data for residential and military purposes. Russian bombings have devastated local mobile networks during its three -year invasion, which renders the essential satellite communication services essential – but the previously close relationship of Musk with a volatile Trump, whose support for kyiv has been fluid, raised concerns in Europe against long -term starlink reliability. It remains to be seen whether the president’s visceral public confrontation and the technological billionaire will erase these concerns among European leaders, who are largely there to support kyiv in the long term.

The last time we heard, Europe was still pursuing another satellite champion to dislodge the overwhelming dependence of the starry bond in Ukraine. The French Eutelsat, which already supports government and institutional communications in the Eastern European Pays, has benefited from this company. Since the merger with Oneweb of Great Britain in 2023, the French company commands more than 650 Oneweb satellites in Low Earth orbit (Leo), as well as more than 30 geostationary satellites.

The company obtained a good vote of trust last week, when it announced a capital increase of 1.35 billion euros led by the French government – which will become the largest shareholder of the company with a participation of 29.99% – and other investors, in order to strengthen its Leo capacities. The shares increased by 31% accordingly, based on gains recorded after the initial speculation according to which he could enter the Starlink shoes in Ukraine. It is a beautiful bump at the end of the low levels of the end of February in the days which followed a lower half -yearly profit report than expected by softer diffusion sales and corporate costs.

And these types of private players are officially not only a marginal consideration for NATO. Just this week, the Alliance published its very first Commercial space strategyhighlighting three objectives – to take advantage of commercial solutions, ensure continuous access during peace, crisis or conflicts and strengthen relations consistent with the commercial sector. The end game, ultimately, is to help business partners better understand the needs of NATO, to invest and meet the necessary safety measures, including for cybersecurity, and to extend manufacturing capacity “- many stages unless the purchase of its own space arsenal, but always a potential windfall for private companies dealing with individual members.

• The Macron of France says that Europe must again be a “spatial power” – French President Emmanuel Macron called for additional investments to ensure the competitiveness of the European space industry in front of us and the Chinese rivals, urging the region to become a spatial power, with France in its heart “. – AFP via France24
• China is testing its own operating system in space – Seeking to minimize foreign outbuildings, Beijing has successfully tested a local operating system – an open source version of Harmonyos de Huawei – in space on board the Dalian -1 Lianli Cubeat. – Interesting engineering
• The NASA budget cuts off the way for Chinese spatial ambitions – Budgetary garnishes offered to NASA, which have already aroused warnings from the European Space Agency on the setbacks of the project, could open the road for Beijing plans to deepen its tip in space, in the midst of plans to land on the Moon in the next five years. – Undress
• The Trump-Musk confrontation presents risks of space domination – Among other impacts, the public dispute between American President Donald Trump and Elon Musk underlined the extent to which NASA depends on the spacex of the technological billionaire for future launches. – Spatial news
• South Korea targets the development of reusable space launch vehicles in decade – The Korea Aerospace Administration intends to develop a reusable new generation spatial launch vehicle by 2035, adjusting a project of around 1.53 billion dollars. – Cyberness
• First galactic images of the largest observatory camera – The US National Science Foundation published some of the first test images produced by the Vera Rubin Conservatory, which captured the light of the distant galaxies. – Cnn

• AX-4 Crewed Mission Heads to Is – The SpaceX dragon was launched with the AX-4 crew mission to four people to the international space station, after delays in the middle of concerns about a leak on the Russian side of the space laboratory. – Space.com
• Sierra Space opens the technological center in Colorado – The Sierra Space space and defense company is building a new production facilitation for wrapping solar tables in La Défense in Broomfield, Colorado. – Sierra area
• Hals to make small satellite launch rockets from India – Hindustan aeronautics of India State will make the small satellite launching rockets of India commercially, after having won the project with an offer of 5.11 billion rupees ($ 59 million). – Reuters

• Airbus Space Business inverters is fine, say the frames – The reversal in Airbus’s space activities is progressing well, according to company managers, after the unit took 1.3 billion euros (1.5 billion dollars) in 2024. – Spatial news
• The actions of Starlink Rival Eutelsat Rally after the French government drew the capital —The actions of the operator by European satellite Eutelsat added 31% after having announced that France supported a capital increase of 1.35 billion euros (1.58 billion dollars) to support investment in its capacities of low terrestrial orbit. – CNBC
• Honda successfully tests a reusable rocket – The automaker Honda has finished a launch and a vertical landing test of its “experimental reusable rocket” in the prefecture of Japan Hokkaido. The company has not yet disclosed its plans to market or deploy booster and rocket technologies. – NBC News

• June 28 – Falcon 9 Rockets of SpaceX to launch with Starlink satellites in Florida and California.
• June 28 -H-IIA 202 of the aerospace aerospace agency to leave with Gosat-GW satellites in Tanegashima.
• June 29 – Blue Origin’s new shepard from a suborbital crew flight outside Texas.
• July 3 – The Soyuz de Roscosmos to launch with the cargo of supplies at the International Space Station of Kazakhstan.