This Special Edition of Space Business Review includes Milbank's top ten space business stories of 2022.
#1 – Invasion of Ukraine
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has far-reaching industry impacts: commercial providers Starlink, Maxar, Viasat, Iridium, BlackSky, Planet, Capella, HawkEye 360, Spire Global and others provide services using satellite communications and Earth observation systems to Ukraine, its partners and humanitarian organizations to support defense and relief efforts; planned launches of Soyuz and Proton vehicles are suspended and remain on hold due to changes in sanctions and export controls and corresponding reactions by Russia, causing delays for international commercial and civil customers; a batch of OneWeb satellites is stranded at Baikonur; and ESA’s Rosalind Franklin Mars rover is delayed, with launch now expected no earlier than 2028.
#2 – Dawn of Direct-to-Mobile Connectivity
Direct-to-mobile connectivity breaks through in 2022: Globalstar enables emergency connectivity for Apple’s iPhone 14; SpaceX and T-Mobile partner up with plans to connect handheld devices on the T-Mobile network to the Starlink system; AST SpaceMobile launches and tests its BlueWalker 3 prototype satellite; and Lynk Global receives FCC authorization to operate its planned constellation.
#3 – Consolidation for Scale, Customers & Revenue
Consolidation continues among both legacy and Newspace entities, as companies pursue scale, customers and revenue: Eutelsat and OneWeb agree to merge; Viasat purchases Inmarsat; L3Harris Technologies acquires Aerojet Rocketdyne and Viasat’s Link 16 Tactical Data Links business unit; Kongsberg acquires NanoAvionics; Raytheon purchases Northern Space and Security; SES buys DRS Global Enterprise Solutions; Antarctica Capital acquires Descartes Labs; Anuvu agrees to purchase Signal Mountain Networks; and Redwire adds QinetiQ Space and so on...
