Expedition Space: Space Launch, Events, News

by Liz Pillow Big Data is boosting Earth Observation demand, creating new applications and changing traditional business models. As a disruptive innovation, it keeps changing the way EO data is being used. Technologies are no longer the only driver of innovation; this is about how, with innovations being combined, the ecosystem is rapidly maturing — and so are the solutions. Big Data players such as AWS and Microsoft are entering the game. They not only host third-party data but are increasingly becoming key partners and indispensable intermediaries to deliver near-real-time information by shortening data-reception time to the ground and providing pre-processing analysis on the fly. AN UNPRECEDENTED CONJUNCTION OF TECHNICAL INNOVATIONS What we call Big Data is an efficient way to collect, manage, process, store, distribute and access a huge and continuous information flow that cannot be handled by humans. The key enablers are automation processing and virtualization. BIG DATA P...

by Liz Pillow We’ve all been there. Either as a child, in the back of your parents’ car, probably squashed between two obnoxious siblings or, as a parent of a restless toddler, 15 minutes into a four-hour road trip, the question always arises, “Are we there yet?” Those of us in the Earth observations field, have a special affinity for this question as we have had to ask it many times on the long journey of launching satellites, collecting data, analyzing Earth’s changes, and predicting future trends. Are we there yet, at that moment when disparate data systems across the federal agencies are integrated easily? Are we there yet, when a potential user of Earth observations can easily discover and apply data and information that they need? Are we there yet, when services for climate, land cover change, oceans, and ecosystems are elevated to the operational level of weather services? The introduction of the Biden administration’s American Jobs Plan with its estimated $2 trillion infra...

by Liz Pillow An enduring streak of large private investments not seen the space industry’s six decades of existence has taken hold in the past several years. By Northern Sky Research’s count, the space sector has garnered close to $32 billion in investments since the current wave of financing started in 2014 when Google paid $500 million for Skybox. While $32 billion pales in comparison to the inflation-adjusted $288 billion the United States shelled out during the 1960s to beat the Soviet Union to the moon, the unrestrained spending NASA marshaled to win the Space Race seems to be finding an echo in the current wave of thoughtless investments. But this time, there’s no moon-or-bust crash program driving the influx of capital. Instead, we are seeing a rush to write blank checks without detailed consideration for what commercial enterprises worldwide value most: the market. HOT MARKET CALLING More funds are going into private space entities than ever before. In 2020 alone, inves...

by Liz Pillow Overnight, or so it seems, space has become “red-hot,” facilitating new financing and exit options for space entrepreneurs and investors. A frequent question is whether this change in market sentiment is a flash in the pan or the beginning of a new, sustainable era? If the former, investors and executives would be well-advised to hastily run for the exit while the gates are still open. If the latter, then the space, the final frontier, is at last open for business. A QUICK REWIND … Since its birth nearly 70 years ago, the space sector has depended almost entirely on government support, supplemented by limited corporate investment and practically no venture or private investment. This dynamic was upended in the 1990s, with numerous telecom and defense companies leading the charge to develop new rockets, broadband GEO satellites, and constellations of LEO satellites. The spectacular demise of this effort at the turn of the last century (epitomized by the bankruptcy of...