Material shortages, capacity constraints, and 18-month lead times threaten the projected $1.8 trillion global space economy.

Solar procurement delays are cascading into satellite integration delays of 6 to 9 months.

The United States expects to operate 20,000 commercial satellites by 2030, up from about 10,000 currently.

The space industry must scale solar panel production from dozens to thousands of units annually to meet projected demand.

In June 2025, Sierra Space expanded its solar power system manufacturing capacity to 150 kilowatts per year, a threefold increase.

OneWeb is expanding its constellation beyond its initial deployment.

Solar power systems constitute one of the most significant bottlenecks in the satellite supply chain.

The space industry is transitioning from producing dozens of bespoke satellites annually with decade-long design cycles to manufacturing thousands of standardized spacecraft on timelines measured in months.

If each satellite requires an average of 2 kilowatts of solar capacity, the industry needs roughly 20 megawatts of space-qualified solar arrays annually to meet near-term deployment schedules.

The U.S. space sector is projected to expand from roughly $300 billion to $900 billion between 2024 and 2035.

Amazon’s Project Kuiper has authorization for 3,236 satellites.

Susanne Hake is head of Vantor’s U.S. government business.

The $5.3 million award is Vantor’s first under NGA’s multiple-award Luno B contract announced in January 2025 to 13 companies.

Vantor will fuse data from multiple space-based sensors, including its own imaging satellites and other operators of electro-optical and synthetic aperture radar satellites.

Vantor received a $5.3 million contract from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency to provide automated analytics on real-time changes in Earth’s terrain.

Vantor’s analytics will support NGA missions related to natural and man-made disasters, regional conflicts, and humanitarian assistance events.

Vantor was called Maxar Intelligence until last fall.

Vantor demonstrated AI-detected infrastructure and housing changes in a change-detection pilot in Reynosa, Mexico.

NGA’s multiple-award Luno A contract was awarded in September 2024 to provide government customers with commercial data and analytics services that monitor and assess global economic, environmental, and military activity.

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency also awarded Luno B orders to NV5, Planet Labs, and Ursa Space Systems.

Vantor received an award under NGA’s multiple-award Luno A contract in summer 2024.

Vantor’s fused data and insights will be used to update NGA’s Land Use Land Cover classification system to characterize land use and condition worldwide.

Luno B is an indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract with a $200 million ceiling over five years to provide GEOINT users data and analytic services that characterize economic, environmental, and geopolitical activity worldwide.

The Memorandum of Understanding between Shanghai Spacesail and Panasonic Avionics enables the companies to explore connecting airliners to a low Earth orbit constellation with a focus on China and the Asia-Pacific.

Panasonic Avionics Corporation is a California-based subsidiary of Japan’s Panasonic.

Contracted launch provider Space Pioneer completed a dedicated payload integration facility at Jiuquan to support launching thirty-six satellites at once.

Shanghai Spacesail Technologies Co Ltd (上海垣信卫星科技有限公司) operates the 108-satellite Qianfan connectivity constellation.

A batch of Qianfan satellites may be onboard Tianlong-3’s first launch in the coming weeks.

John Wade is Vice President of Connectivity at Panasonic Avionics Corporation.

This year, the Qianfan constellation aims to deploy 324 satellites and possibly grow to 432 satellites in orbit by the end of the year.

Qianfan reached an agreement with Airbus in December 2025 to become a key managed service provider for Airbus’s High Bandwidth Connectivity Plus program.

Shanghai Spacesail Technologies Co Ltd signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Panasonic Avionics Corporation at the Singapore Airshow.

Shanghai Spacesail and Panasonic Avionics will collaborate to extend low Earth orbit capabilities into the aviation market.

Panasonic Avionics Corporation plans to develop a next-generation antenna and terminal ecosystem capable of communicating with satellites including Eutelsat’s OneWeb.

SpaceX projects that launching one million tons per year of satellites that generate 100 kilowatts of computing power per ton would add 100 gigawatts of AI computing capacity each year.

SpaceX and xAI describe lunar manufacturing facilities as capable of enabling deployment of substantially larger amounts of computing infrastructure throughout the solar system.

The planned orbital data center constellation would follow space sustainability practices, including end-of-life disposal strategies used for SpaceX’s Starlink broadband satellites.

Long-term plans include potential lunar manufacturing facilities that could produce satellites using lunar resources and deploy them into deeper space using electromagnetic launch systems.

SpaceX projects that Starship launches carrying 200 tons per flight could eventually deliver millions of tons to orbit annually.

SpaceX acquired xAI in a merger intended to create a vertically integrated innovation platform combining artificial intelligence, rocket technology, satellite internet, and communications systems.

The SpaceX–xAI merger was completed in advance of an anticipated SpaceX initial public offering planned for this year.

SpaceX and xAI contend that current AI development relies heavily on terrestrial data centers that consume massive amounts of electricity and cooling resources.

SpaceX and xAI estimate that within two to three years space-based AI computing could become the most cost-effective option for processing and training AI models.

SpaceX’s Starship rocket is designated as the primary launch vehicle for the orbital AI data center initiative.

The merged entity plans to launch a constellation of satellites functioning as orbital data centers that would harness solar power continuously in space.

The merged SpaceX–xAI entity plans to deploy AI data centers in orbit as part of a long-term space-based computing infrastructure.

Ookla’s 2025 Global Satellite Broadband Performance Report identifies the United States, Mexico, Indonesia, Brazil, and Canada as the top five markets, in that order.

Ookla’s 2025 Global Satellite Broadband Performance Report shows Starlink’s dominance in the satellite broadband market.

Ookla’s 2025 Global Satellite Broadband Performance Report shows that for millions of people the fastest path to high-speed broadband is satellite constellations rather than terrestrial cable.

Ookla data indicates that download and upload speeds that decreased between 2021 and 2023 have begun to sharply improve.