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#1 – D2D and Mobile Spectrum Gold Rush
Mobile spectrum's value skyrockets in sprint to deploy direct- to-device (D2D) services; EchoStar sold 3.45 GHz, 600 MHz spectrum to AT&T for $22.65b, AWS-3, AWS-4, H-block spectrum to SpaceX for $19.6b; AST SpaceMobile (AST)
$535m deal with Viasat and Ligado for L-band spectrum and
S-band spectrum deal for $64.5m; Lynk Global and Omnispace agreed to merge; Eutelsat tested 5G over OneWeb satellites; SpaceX D2D Starlink satellites total 650+; Verizon ordered AST D2D services; ViaSat, Space42 form L-band spectrum JV.
#2 – Rise of Space Sovereignty
Governments prioritized space sovereignty; the United States launched its Golden Dome missile defense program with $25b development funding; the UK and France contributed over
€900m to Eutelsat Group funding; European Union backstops IRIS2 constellation, refined €1b European Resilience from Space initiative; Germany awarded €1.7b contract to Iceye and Rheinmetall; Finland picked Iceye for €158m Earth observation constellation; Poland selected Creotech for €52m constellation.
#3 – M&A and IPO Activity Picks Up
Consolidation and initial public offerings (IPOs) proceeded; SES acquired Intelsat for $3.1b; CACI to buy ARKA for $2.6b; Intuitive Machines to acquire Lanteris Space Systems; Spire sold maritime business to Kpler for $241m; IonQ purchased Capella and Skyloom; Voyager Technologies raised $402m in IPO; Firefly Aerospace raised $1b in IPO; York submitted initial IPO paperwork; SpaceX expressed interest in future IPO.
#4 – LEO Constellation Landscape Matures
LEO mega-constellations are deployed and achieving scale; Amazon Leo began deployment (180 satellites in orbit, 3,236 planned); China deployed Thousand Sails (108 satellites in orbit, 648 planned) and Guowang (136 satellites in orbit, 13,000 planned); Starlink surpassed 10,000 satellites deployed and 9,400 active (up to 42,000 planned).
#5 – Launch Services Developments
New heavy lift launch vehicles came online as small lift saw mixed results; Blue Origin's New Glenn debuted, launching twice and landing once; SpaceX's Starship conducted five test flights and succeeded twice; MHI's H3 launched twice with one launch failure; Arianespace's Ariane 6 successfully launched four times; in small lift, Rocket Lab successfully launched Electron 19 times; Firefly Aerospace launched twice with one failure; Isar Aerospace launched first Spectrum test flight.
#6 – Private Investment Keeps Flowing
Commercial space fundraising grew; AST issued $1.15b in convertible senior notes; Eutelsat Group raised €1.5b capital; Stoke Space raised $510m in series D funding; Space Pioneer raised $350m in new investment; launch start-up Galactic Energy raised $336m in series D funding; Impulse Space raised $300m in a series C funding round; K-2 Space brought in $250m in new series C investment; Hadrian raised $260m in series C funding; Iceye raised €150m in new investment.
#7 – AI & Data Centers in Space
Interest built in artificial intelligence (AI) applications and data centers in space; Voyager Technologies invested in Latent AI; Google announced plans to test data center hardware on Planet satellites; Starcloud trained and ran an AI model on its Starcloud-1 satellite; Slingshot Aerospace, Shield AI developed AI space situational awareness, autonomous operations.
#8 – New Frontiers
Lunar lander, in-space services and VLEO satellite firms all saw a boost in 2025; Firefly, ispace and Intuitive Machines attempted lunar landings, and Firefly succeeded; Impulse Space signed a multi-satellite orbital transfer services deal with SES; Varda Space flew four LEO manufacturing missions; Space Forge launched its ForgeStar-1 demonstration mission; Albedo Space launched the Clarity-1 VLEO satellite; Redwire Space received $44m from DARPA for VLEO propulsion R&D.
#9 – Regulators React
The FCC announced satellite licensing modernization effort; the European Commission proposed the EU Space Act to harmonize EU space activity frameworks; the UK's Ofcom and Canada's ISED each introduced a D2D licensing framework.
#10 – Key 2025 Commercial Launches and Satellite Orders
Arianespace Ariane 6: CSO-3, MetOp-SG-A1, Sentinel-1D, 2 Galileo satellites; CASC Long March Series: 90 launches, including 15 for Guowang; Rocket Lab Electron: 10 Kinéis IoT satellites, 6 iQPS satellites; ISRO LVM3: BlueBird Block 2 satellite; SpaceX Falcon 9: 167 launches, including 24 Kuiper satellites, 2 WorldView Legion satellites, Bandwagon 3-4, Blue Ghost Mission 1, Transporter 12-15 and 122 Starlink missions; ULA Atlas V: ViaSat-3 F2, 81 Kuiper satellites; satellite orders: MDA Space Ltd.: 50+ satellites for Globalstar; SFL Missions Inc.: 11 satellites (9 for Hawkeye 360, 2 for GHGSat); Thales Alenia Space: JSAT-32; Iceye: 4 satellites for IHI Corporation
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