Quilty Space Top Takeaways from World Space Business Week 2026
Sept. 30, 2026
By Caleb Henry
Quilty Space returned to Paris for the annual World Space Business Week conference, meeting with customers and contacts across the industry. Every year we notice some themes that emerge from our conversations, from hallway meetings and happy hours to formal sit downs with industry leaders. Here are our top takeaways from 2026:
Launch vehicle crunch. The rumor has been confirmed. SpaceX is retiring the workhorse Falcon 9 rocket, which accounted for ~90% of all non-Chinese mass to orbit last year, to focus its efforts on Starship. SpaceX has stopped taking reservations beyond mid-2029 and there is a general consensus that Starship will not be commercially available before the early 2030’s as SpaceX focuses on internal priorities (Starlink, HLS, ODCs). Meanwhile, Ariane 6, New Glenn, and Vulcan are fully booked between Amazon’s mega-order and national security missions. Who will fill that multi-year gap? Rocket Lab’s Neutron is arguably the most heavily anticipated new rocket, but surprisingly Relativity Space’s Terran-R was the most mentioned launch vehicle in our limited sample size. Also drawing mentions, Isar Aerospace, following its first successful launch, and Firefly’s Eclipse.
Sovereignty is king. What started as a shift from commercial markets to defense customers (across EO and satcom) has morphed into something bigger: offering turnkey solutions to Ministries of Defense (MoDs) with complete control over their systems. Of the top 10 defense spenders globally, six are already pursuing sovereign connectivity constellations (the US, Russia, China, Germany, France and Japan). The number climbs higher when adding remote sensing, where hundreds or thousands of satellites are not a requirement. Space companies are responding to that demand signal in their home countries, with the EU drawing considerable interest even from U.S. and Canadian ventures.
Double scoop funding. After watching Vast Space, Impulse Space and K2 Space raise two nine-figure rounds within 12 months (and Stoke Space raising $1.9 billion in that time), space startups see now is the time to fundraise. Gone are the days of spreading out fundraising efforts based on needs. In its place: striking while the iron is hot and raising back-to-back rounds while enthusiasm for space, defense, and deep-tech investing is at a high.
European growth-stage investments. European space companies raised more than €1B ($1.15M) during the first half of September across Endurosat, HyImpulse, The Exploration Company, PLD Space, and Open Cosmos. For years, the conversation in Europe was how startups could close early stage rounds, but struggled to land growth stage rounds needed to scale. That sentiment is changing, driven by the aforementioned sovereignty push and global popularity of defense and deep-tech investing. These growth rounds, combined with billions of dollars in IRIS2 contracts (including Aerospacelab’s disruptive win of 264 satellites) contributed to a higher level of European bravado compared to the hand wringing of past years.
Starlink diaspora making waves. Satellite manufacturers formed or anchored by leadership with SpaceX engineering experience– AscendArc, Eclipse, K2, and Vast – dominate much of the discussion about next-gen space systems. Additionally, some established satellite communications companies are placing bets on ex-Starlink talent, hoping some of the magic will rub off. The rationale is clear: companies need new ways to compete with Starlink. Will this succeed? Unclear. Launch tried the same thing, notably Blue Origin and Relativity, but we don’t (yet) have a second high-cadence heavy lift rocket.
