https://spacewatch.global/features/ AN INDEPENDENT PERSPECTIVE ON SPACE Tue, 29 Sep 2026 09:32:10 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.1.2 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-carbon-offsets-pay-for-the-status-quo-part-i-a-tonne-is-not-a-tonne/ Wed, 30 Sep 2026 08:00:00 +0000 https://spacewatch.global/?p=78256
Written by Karolina Sarna
Most carbon offsets pay for a reduction that would have happened anyway, and even the real ones store carbon only temporarily against a fossil emission that lasts for centuries. The cleanup is making the credits look more trustworthy without changing what they are: a claim the atmosphere never registers.]]> https://spacewatch.global/2026/09/spacewatchgl-opinion-vaduz-says-federate-now-perfect-later/ Tue, 29 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0000 https://spacewatch.global/?p=78326 Europe's usual reflex is to design the institution first and deliver the capability later. At the first Vaduz Space Dialogue, the message was clear: on secure connectivity, there is no time for that. Torsten Kriening on why federation should start now, and why Liechtenstein wants to host it.]]> https://spacewatch.global/2026/09/spacewatchgl-gray-space-cosco-spy-ships-how-space-can-help-until-the-west-weans-itself-off-maritime-dependency/ Tue, 29 Sep 2026 08:00:00 +0000 https://spacewatch.global/?p=78251
Written by Christophe Bosquillon
US allegations that COSCO vessels have supported Chinese intelligence collection expose a difficult Western dependency. Christophe Bosquillon examines how space-based maritime domain awareness could help manage the security risk without disrupting critical global supply chains.]]> https://spacewatch.global/2026/09/spacewatchgl-opinion-promises-at-dawn-the-international-space-summit/ Mon, 28 Sep 2026 08:00:00 +0000 https://spacewatch.global/?p=78248
Written by Gilles Rabin
The International Space Summit in Paris promised a new dawn for European space. Gilles Rabin looks beyond the political declarations to a NewSpace community increasingly forging its own alliances, contracts and path towards greater European independence.]]> https://spacewatch.global/2026/09/spacewatchgl-analysis-britain-stops-being-polite-in-space/ Fri, 25 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0000 https://spacewatch.global/?p=78194 The first UK Space Power Conference, held in London on 23–24 September 2026, marked the moment Britain began treating space as terrain to be controlled. A new offensive space squadron, a "One Space" strategy and blunt calls to stop being polite: our analysis of what changed, what is still missing, and what to watch next.]]> https://spacewatch.global/2026/09/spacewatchgl-opinion-achievement-is-not-capability-spaces-next-industrial-test-is-repeatability/ Thu, 24 Sep 2026 08:00:00 +0000 https://spacewatch.global/?p=78046
Written by Alexandru Marian
Technical success does not automatically create industrial capability. Alexandru Marian examines why repeatability, from supply chains and production to governance and security, is becoming the next competitive test for the space sector.]]> https://spacewatch.global/2026/09/spacewatchgl-space-unromanced-no-passport-no-moonshot/ Wed, 23 Sep 2026 08:00:00 +0000 https://spacewatch.global/?p=78032
Written by Raoul Cardellini Leipertz
The space sector calls itself international, but passports, visas, sponsorship rules and nationality restrictions still determine who can study, travel and work within it. In Space, Unromanced, Raoul Cardellini Leipertz asks what the global competition for talent looks like when not everyone is allowed to enter the race.]]> https://spacewatch.global/2026/09/spacewatchgl-orbital-venturing-chapter-6-endgame/ Tue, 22 Sep 2026 08:00:00 +0000 https://spacewatch.global/?p=77974
Written by Jascha Langenberg
Reaching maturity is not the end of a space start-up’s journey. Chapter 6 explores how companies shift from R&D to financial discipline, the realities of IPOs and M&A, and what a successful exit can look like in Europe’s space sector.]]> https://spacewatch.global/2026/09/spacewatchgl-gray-space-pixxel-from-students-dream-to-winning-bet-hyperspectral-opportunities-for-europe/ Mon, 21 Sep 2026 08:00:00 +0000 https://spacewatch.global/?p=77911
Written by Christophe Bosquillon
From a Bengaluru student dormitory to US government contracts and a $100 million Series C, Pixxel bet early on hyperspectral Earth observation. Christophe Bosquillon asks what its trajectory can teach Europe as the hyperspectral market approaches a potential inflection point.]]> https://spacewatch.global/2026/09/spacewatchgl-recap-europe-signs-the-blueprint-then-someone-asked-who-was-missing/ Fri, 18 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0000 https://spacewatch.global/?p=77840 ESA signed two competing architecture studies for the EU's future Earth Observation Governmental Service - one led by Leonardo, one by ICEYE. Two hours later, a question from the floor exposed who wasn't in either consortium. From the final day of World Space Business Week and the Summit on Earth Observation Business.]]> https://spacewatch.global/2026/09/spacewatchgl-opinion-what-europe-should-do-now-in-space/ Fri, 18 Sep 2026 08:00:00 +0000 https://spacewatch.global/?p=77761
Written by K.-P. Ludwig
As the world's spacefaring nations gather in Paris, one narrative dominates: that Europe is falling behind, in the race to the Moon, in the race for launch vehicles, in the race for constellations. This narrative is convenient, because it postpones action to some future date. It is also wrong.]]> https://spacewatch.global/2026/09/spacewatchgl-recap-spin-europe-has-the-money-now-comes-the-hard-part/ Thu, 17 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0000 https://spacewatch.global/?p=77807 Yesterday's summit argued about sovereignty. Today's asked whether European industry can actually build it. From the Space Innovation Summit in Paris: Isar's scale-first bet, the first IRIS² satellites under contract, and two serious investors disagreeing in public about whether Europe's problem is capital or customers.]]> https://spacewatch.global/2026/09/spacewatchgl-recap-wsbw-day-one-the-money-is-here-the-business-models-arent-finished/ Tue, 15 Sep 2026 07:00:00 +0000 https://spacewatch.global/?p=77692
Written by Torsten Kriening
Five days after the International Space Summit set Europe's ambition, WSBW spent Monday asking who pays for it. Aschbacher confirmed ESA will put a crew transportation decision to ministers in Rome. The financing panel confirmed many listed space companies trade well below IPO. And from Riyadh to Luanda, two very different answers to what sovereignty actually means. Torsten Kriening's day one recap from Paris.]]> https://spacewatch.global/2026/09/spacewatchgl-opinion-space-has-inspired-the-public-for-decades-now-it-needs-to-listen/ Thu, 10 Sep 2026 08:00:00 +0000 https://spacewatch.global/?p=77467
Written by Judith Delany
Europe depends on space more than most citizens realise. As Josef Aschbacher calls for greater public engagement, new initiatives from ESA and ESPI are exploring how to turn space outreach into a two-way conversation.]]> 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.]]>