Iran-linked threat actor Mirage Kitten has persistently targeted the global aerospace sector through sophisticated recruitment-themed social engineering, trusted infrastructure and evolving malware to steal sensitive information and maintain long-term access to aerospace, defense and telecom networks.

The European Commission, ESA and the SpaceRISE consortium (SES, Eutelsat and Hispasat) have finalized the implementation agreement for Europe’s IRIS² satellite constellation, resolving months of negotiations over the program’s architecture, cost and governance.

How increasingly interconnected cybercriminal ecosystems—powered by shared tools, brokered access and as-a-service models—are creating new cybersecurity risks for the space industry by exploiting trusted supply chains and third-party relationships.

A new study suggests persistent GNSS interference affecting Europe, Greenland and Canada may be linked to Russian early-warning satellites, highlighting how intermittent space-based electronic warfare could threaten the resilience of critical navigation and space systems.

Orion Space Solutions President Gregg Burgess discusses the architectural, operational and legacy-system challenges facing the U.S. Space Force as it works to integrate space capabilities across air, land, sea and cyber domains to support faster, more effective military operations.

Commercial space companies face growing cyber threats from initial access brokers and data extortion groups that exploit stolen credentials, cloud platforms and supply-chain relationships to sell access into mission-critical aerospace environments, making identity security and SaaS protection important.

As the global space economy evolves, national autonomy is shifting from simple hardware ownership toward total control over the operational stack, including data and networks. Industry experts suggest that hybrid architectures are now the most pragmatic way for nations to maintain security and decision-making authority in an increasingly interconnected orbital landscape.

As threat actors shift from attacking perimeters to exploiting the implicit trust within CI/CD pipelines, the space sector faces an increasingly sophisticated software supply chain risk. This latest briefing analyzes how malicious libraries and compromised developer tools are bypassing traditional defenses to threaten mission-critical infrastructure and overall mission assurance.

Standardized cybersecurity frameworks are giving the space industry a common language to share threat intelligence, accelerate defenses and ultimately enable machine-to-machine protection against sophisticated attacks.

As Europe accelerates investment in sovereign satellite communications, IRIS², NATO’s HALO initiative and multi-orbit architectures are reshaping how governments balance resilience, security and commercial partnerships.

Former U.S. Air Force and Space Force General Counsel Peter Beshar explains why decades-old space treaties must evolve to address commercial space, lunar resource extraction and emerging security threats in an increasingly contested orbital environment.

Boston Consulting Group’s Alessio Bonucci explains why space sovereignty is reshaping global competition, with launch capability, industrial capacity and defense investment emerging as the defining factors in the next generation of national space strategies.

Colonel Eddie Gutierrez details how Mission Delta 3 is accelerating electronic warfare capabilities to keep pace with rapidly evolving space threats. He discusses Guardian readiness, improved targeting and the need for close coordination among operators, acquisition teams and industry to deliver effective EW systems at the speed of the mission.

A €35B, five‑year military space push starting this year is accelerating partnerships between primes and New Space firms. Priority programs like SatcomBw Stage 4—alongside Europe’s Iris2—are competing for talent and testing how fast Germany’s space ecosystem can scale.

To keep pace with rapidly evolving threats, Colonel Tim Trimailo emphasizes the need to leverage commercial innovation for faster, more agile capability delivery. By breaking down classification barriers and integrating AI-driven autonomy, the service aims to secure a decisive edge in an increasingly contested space domain.

As the United States reshapes its military space posture for a more contested orbital environment, it is emphasizing proliferated satellite architectures, closer integration with commercial industry and more flexible acquisition strategies to sustain operational advantage. At the same time, analysts warn that long-term strategic planning, industrial capacity in space and clearer capability signals to industry will be critical to ensuring resilience, deterrence and mission effectiveness in future conflicts.

Space ISAC’s review of 2026 threats examines how escalating geopolitical conflict, cyberattacks, AI-enabled threats, electronic warfare, supply chain vulnerabilities and increasingly contested orbits are reshaping the security and resilience of the global space sector.

As rivals build resilient positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) architectures beyond GPS, experts warn the United States is falling behind due to fragmented leadership, a lack of a national backup system and slow government action.

Why cyberattacks have become the greatest threat to space systems, and how zero-trust architectures and secure-by-design principles are becoming essential to protecting critical satellite infrastructure.

As the Department of Defense’s November CMMC deadline approaches, space companies are weighing the cost, complexity and strategic tradeoffs of achieving cybersecurity compliance while protecting their competitiveness across the defense supply chain.

Earth observation providers are increasingly moving toward software-as-a-service models that combine satellite data, cloud computing and AI-driven analytics to deliver actionable insights rather than raw imagery, expanding the market beyond traditional geospatial specialists to mainstream enterprise and government users.

Missile defense systems and autonomous UAVs are converging around a shared need for tighter data integration, AI-driven decision-making and multi-layered network architectures to operate effectively in contested environments. Future resilience will depend on unifying sensing, communication and control into a single intelligent system, while overcoming persistent challenges in interoperability, policy and real-time coordination.

Rising geopolitical tensions and supply chain risks are driving nations to invest heavily in sovereign space capabilities, with thousands of government-backed satellites planned to ensure independent access, resilience and strategic advantage in both military and civilian domains. But while sovereignty strengthens national security, experts warn that fragmentation, interoperability challenges and overreliance on single providers could undermine efficiency and resilience unless balanced with smart alliances and coordinated investment.

Following lessons learned from the conflict in Ukraine, the 32-nation alliance is moving beyond traditional geostationary leases to integrate LEO, MEO, and HEO constellations for more resilient connectivity. This strategic evolution includes a revamped procurement policy designed to bypass bureaucracy and potentially return NATO to owning its own space-based transponders by 2034.