https://spacewatch.global/features/ AN INDEPENDENT PERSPECTIVE ON SPACE Wed, 02 Sep 2026 05:04:51 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.1 https://spacewatch.global/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/SpaceWatchGlobal-Sign-90x90.png https://spacewatch.global/features/ 32 32 https://spacewatch.global/2026/09/spacewatchgl-opinion-a-moon-base-must-learn-to-fail/ Thu, 03 Sep 2026 08:00:00 +0000 https://spacewatch.global/?p=77169
Written by Rania Toukebri
Permanent lunar presence will depend on more than building the physical infrastructure required to keep humans alive. Once that infrastructure exists, another challenge emerges: keeping an increasingly complex settlement operational when components fail, supply chains are stretched and immediate intervention from Earth is impossible.]]> https://spacewatch.global/2026/09/spacewatchgl-space-unromanced-starry-eyed-and-underpaid/ Wed, 02 Sep 2026 08:00:00 +0000 https://spacewatch.global/?p=77165
Written by Raoul Cardellini Leipertz
The space sector thrives on passion, but too often expects early-career professionals to finance that passion themselves. Raoul Cardellini Leipertz examines how unpaid internships, low-paid opportunities, and the hidden cost of gaining experience shape who can afford to build a career in space. ]]> https://spacewatch.global/2026/08/spacewatchgl-opinion-washington-is-building-a-space-academy-eight-weeks-ago-europe-liquidated-one/ Mon, 31 Aug 2026 09:00:00 +0000 https://spacewatch.global/?p=77127 President Trump's executive order of 28 August creates no campus and appropriates no money. One overlooked clause seals the proposed academy off from allies entirely - and it lands eight weeks after a Strasbourg court liquidated the International Space University. Torsten Kriening on the question Washington has answered and Europe has not yet asked.]]> https://spacewatch.global/2026/08/spacewatchgl-opinion-a-moon-base-is-not-a-spacecraft/ Fri, 28 Aug 2026 08:00:00 +0000 https://spacewatch.global/?p=76947
Rania Toukebri
A permanent Moon base is not simply a collection of spacecraft technologies. Rania Toukebri explores how life support, power, thermal control, mobility and lunar resources must become one integrated infrastructure.]]> https://spacewatch.global/2026/08/spacewatchgl-analysis-how-iris2-became-a-market-rescue-programme-wrapped-in-the-language-of-european-strategic-autonomy/ Wed, 26 Aug 2026 08:00:00 +0000 https://spacewatch.global/?p=76931
Written by K.-P. Ludwig
The IRIS2 programme was conceived to address a sincere and urgent strategic need: a sovereign European satellite communication infrastructure, independent of non-European providers, capable of serving both governmental and military requirements. The instrument chosen to deliver it, the SpaceRISE consortium and its concession model, was motivated by something definitely different: the industrial and national interests of a small number of actors seeking to stabilise their own market positions through public funding. The Rendezvous 1 agreement of August 2026, far from resolving this incompatibility, has institutionalised it. This analysis examines how, why, and with what consequences for European security.]]> https://spacewatch.global/2026/08/spacewatchgl-gray-space-orbital-data-centres-while-europe-debates-china-builds/ Tue, 25 Aug 2026 08:00:00 +0000 https://spacewatch.global/?p=76512
Written by Christophe Bosquillon
China is moving rapidly from orbital data centre concepts to deployment, while Europe risks turning an early lead in orbital computing research into another strategic dependency. In Gray Space, Christophe Bosquillon examines ESPI’s warning, China’s coordinated approach and what Europe must do if technological sovereignty is to extend to computing in orbit.]]> https://spacewatch.global/2026/08/spacewatchgl-opinion-science-rich-product-poor/ Mon, 24 Aug 2026 08:00:00 +0000 https://spacewatch.global/?p=76521
Written by Karolina Sarna
The most common way deep-tech and climate companies stall isn't the science. It's that no one owns the demand question, and a product manager isn't a product organisation.]]> https://spacewatch.global/2026/08/spacewatchgl-space-unromanced-the-price-of-looking-up/ Fri, 21 Aug 2026 08:00:00 +0000 https://spacewatch.global/?p=76628
Written by Raoul Cardellini Leipertz
Space talks endlessly about attracting the next generation. But behind the promise of meritocracy lies a quieter barrier: who can actually afford the education, opportunities and unpaid experience required to enter the sector?]]> https://spacewatch.global/2026/08/spacewatchgl-gray-space-usspacecom-2040-space-warfare-no-way-but-the-hard-way/ Thu, 20 Aug 2026 08:00:00 +0000 https://spacewatch.global/?p=76504
Written by Christophe Bosquillon
USSPACECOM’s Space Warfighting Environment 2040 sees space as a permanently contested domain where resilience, interoperability and integration determine advantage. In the first instalment of Gray Space, Christophe Bosquillon examines what this doctrine means for allies – and why Europe’s ambitions for strategic autonomy may collide with Washington’s operational logic.]]> https://spacewatch.global/2026/08/spacewatchgl-orbital-venturing-chapter-5-organising-for-success/ Wed, 19 Aug 2026 08:00:00 +0000 https://spacewatch.global/?p=76442
Written by Jascha Langenberg
Reaching industrial scale creates a new challenge for space start-ups: the organisation itself. Chapter 5 explores how founders, teams and structures must evolve as a start-up grows – and why the habits that enabled early success can eventually hold a company back.]]> https://spacewatch.global/2026/08/spacewatchgl-opinion-europes-orbital-future-innovation-integration-or-irrelevance/ Tue, 18 Aug 2026 08:00:00 +0000 https://spacewatch.global/?p=76438
Written by K.-P. Ludwig
SPRIND’s 2026 space strategy imagines a sovereign European orbital economy built on innovation and autonomy. But the U.S. Space Command’s SWE 2040 describes a very different future: a contested domain shaped by interoperability, resilience and military integration. Can Europe pursue both sovereignty and integration, or will it ultimately have to choose?]]> https://spacewatch.global/2026/08/spacewatchgl-inside-eo-a-satellite-cannot-see-a-difference/ Mon, 17 Aug 2026 08:00:00 +0000 https://spacewatch.global/?p=76328
Written by Karolina Sarna
Why do some Earth Observation applications become thriving commercial markets while others never move beyond pilots? In this edition of Inside EO, Karolina Sarna introduces the Change–Difference Ladder, showing why satellite data only creates value when an external rule turns change into a difference somebody is accountable for.]]> https://spacewatch.global/2026/08/spacewatchgl-analysis-which-side-of-the-road/ Fri, 14 Aug 2026 08:00:00 +0000 https://spacewatch.global/?p=76597
Written by Valentin Eder & Torsten Kriening
As orbital data centres converge on the same valuable dawn-dusk sun-synchronous orbits, a fundamental question remains unanswered: who decides the rules of the road? SpaceWatch.Global examines the emerging traffic, safety and governance challenge, and why Europe should help shape the answer.]]> https://spacewatch.global/2026/08/spacewatchgl-inside-eo-a-job-is-not-a-market/ Thu, 13 Aug 2026 08:00:00 +0000 https://spacewatch.global/?p=76314
Written by Karolina Sarna
Seventy-five accountable jobs across nine domains reduce to five. A map of the demand side Earth observation feeds, and why an empty seat is not an opening.]]> https://spacewatch.global/2026/08/spacewatchgl-analysis-indias-space-industry-push-pays-off-with-successful-launch/ Wed, 12 Aug 2026 08:00:00 +0000 https://spacewatch.global/?p=76319
Written by Edd Gent
India’s efforts to grow a globally competitive private space industry are beginning to pay off, with a successful orbital launch by startup Skyroot Aerospace on 18 July.]]> https://spacewatch.global/2026/08/spacewatchgl-opinion-europes-space-leadership-enters-an-uncertain-autumn/ Tue, 11 Aug 2026 08:00:00 +0000 https://spacewatch.global/?p=76324
Written by Gilles Rabin
As Europe prepares for a new political and conference season, questions about leadership, industrial strategy and long-term ambition are becoming increasingly difficult to ignore. From lunar exploration to IRIS² and France's role within Europe, the coming months may prove decisive for the continent's space future.]]> https://spacewatch.global/2026/08/spacewatch-inside-eo-the-value-was-never-in-the-satellite/ Mon, 10 Aug 2026 08:00:00 +0000 https://spacewatch.global/?p=76310
Written by Karolina Sarna
Commercial Earth Observation has spent years improving satellite capabilities while searching for demand. In this edition of Inside EO, Karolina Sarna argues that value is not created by better data, reasoning layers, or messaging, but only when an observation changes a decision someone is accountable for.]]> https://spacewatch.global/2026/08/spacewatchgl-analysis-isu-three-weeks-on-whose-name-is-it/ Fri, 07 Aug 2026 09:01:00 +0000 https://spacewatch.global/?p=76303 Three weeks after the Strasbourg campus was liquidated, ISU's survival is no longer the question. Two efforts now claim its future on incompatible terms, a formal legal notice has replaced a cancelled meeting, and the city that holds the ground has not chosen. Meanwhile, half the affected students are improvising.]]> https://spacewatch.global/2026/08/spacewatchgl-inside-eo-the-right-to-be-wrong/ Thu, 06 Aug 2026 08:00:00 +0000 https://spacewatch.global/?p=76096
Written by Karolina Sarna
Earth Observation is always a model, sold as a measurement. It cannot become infrastructure until it is allowed to be wrong, and that permission is conferred from outside the vendor, never bought.]]> https://spacewatch.global/2026/08/spacewatchgl-feature-the-kriening-10-and-what-it-revealed/ Wed, 05 Aug 2026 09:00:00 +0000 https://spacewatch.global/?p=76176 Ten posts, one a day, each built on an uncomfortable question about European space - and released while their author was on holiday. Torsten Kriening on what The Kriening 10 revealed, where he was corrected, and why the questions matter now.]]>