The Elektro-L No.5 satellite appears as a short line slightly above the center of the image frame.

Block DM-03 carrying the Elektro-L No.5 satellite was photographed in geostationary transfer orbit after the Proton-M launch on February 12, 2026.

Ivan Timoshenko is a photographer for Roscosmos.

Ivan Timoshenko took photographs showing a rocket launch on February 12, 2026.

Roscosmos Video released additional launch footage.

VEOWARE SPACE CEO Julien Tallineau intends to embed autonomy inside hardware and sell the physical satellite box rather than selling recurring software licenses.

Julien Tallineau is CEO of VEOWARE SPACE and provides torque systems for rapid satellite rotation and stabilization.

Autonomous detection of rival assets, independent onboard decision-making, and high-thrust maneuvering are prerequisites for kinetic conflict in orbit.

Benchmark Space Systems builds propulsion systems that enable spacecraft to maneuver.

VEOWARE SPACE supplies high-torque attitude-control capability intended to enable aggressive pointing and instant stabilization for tracking fast-moving objects in Low Earth Orbit.

Ryan McDevitt framed the engineering challenge for autonomous spacecraft as the need to react faster than the communication loop to the ground.

Commercial vendors in the session described a tension between selling subscriptions and software licenses and defense customers' purchasing preferences.

The NVIDIA AGX systems Sidus Space plans to launch are capable of 248 trillion operations per second.

The SmallSat Symposium featured a session titled "Building the Physical Layer of Autonomy" in the Grand Hall in Mountain View.

The speed-of-light communication delay between ground operators and satellites creates a vulnerability that can prevent timely reaction to adversary satellite movements.

Sidus Space is flying onboard computing hardware that evolved from Google Tensor chips to NVIDIA Jetson NX and is preparing to launch systems with the NVIDIA AGX.

Government buyers have not standardized how they want to receive rapid-response satellite data.

Courtney Sayles is Chief Product Officer at Scout Space and argued that future space conflict will require applying autonomy across offense and defense.

Ryan McDevitt is Chief Technology Officer of Benchmark Space Systems.

Steven Kaufman served as the moderator for the SmallSat Symposium session on Building the Physical Layer of Autonomy.

AE Industrial Partners combined Firefly Aerospace, York Space Systems, and Rocketdyne propulsion heritage to construct a Virtual Prime aimed at vertical integration.

An announcement of orbital data centers has been made as a development that could further entrench SpaceX’s market lead.

SpaceX dominates the commercial launch market and operates the expanding Starlink satellite constellation.

Matt O’Connell is an Operating Partner at DCVC.

Late-stage winners such as Firefly and Stoke Space attract large funding rounds to scale operations.

Public markets remain wary of pre-revenue SPACs, tightening the IPO window for space companies.

Investors and advisors recommend that founders focus on businesses with recurring revenues to mitigate industry risk.

Private equity consolidators are assembling large, vertically integrated platforms in the smallsat industry.

Capella Space was sold to IonQ.

The war in Ukraine and rising global tensions have increased the role of space as a critical domain for national security.

Seed-stage deep tech companies continue to attract investment for novel physics plays such as optical computing.

The Series B funding crunch is creating a narrow exit path that often leads to distressed asset sales or strategic acquisitions by larger entities.

Tyler Letarte is Principal at AE Industrial Partners.

Karl Schmidt is Managing Director at KippsDeSanto & Co.

SmallSat customers are signing multi-launch agreements and paying premium rates while relying on brokers like Exolaunch for launch slots.

Brian Rogers is Rocket Lab’s Vice President of Global Launch Services.

Isar Aerospace, PLD Space, and Avio are European launch companies competing for market share outside U.S. dominance.

Stoke Space is investing $510 million betting that partial reusability is a dead end.

The market pricing floor for launch services is rising toward $6,500 per kilogram.

Rocket Lab’s Neutron launch vehicle was originally promised for 2024 and is now targeting mid-to-late 2026.

Devon Papandrew of Stoke Space attributes SpaceX’s flight-rate constraint to production of the upper stage.

Devon Papandrew is Vice President of Business Development at Stoke Space.

Kier Fortier is Chief Revenue Officer at Exolaunch.

SpaceX is the dominant launch provider in the SmallSat market at the 2026 SmallSat Symposium.

The FAA licensing backlog and a tightened regulatory environment are constraining launch capacity in 2026.

Consolidation of demand onto SpaceX Transporter missions has created waitlists for launches.

Curt Blake is the former CEO of Spaceflight and served as the session moderator at the Small Payloads, Large Upmass session.

Exolaunch has emerged as the primary brokerage funnel for industry launch volume following the dissolution of Spaceflight Inc.’s independent brokerage model.

Avio is targeting a launch cadence of six per year, up from four, which it characterizes as a 50% increase.

The Golden Dome program is reshaping company capitalizations across the aerospace industry, benefiting companies like Redwire and Voyager while creating existential pressures for distressed firms like Momentus.