Plus: Setting Taiwan's 'T-Dome' straight; Predictions for 2026
| By Dan Robitzski
Welcome back to our weekly newsletter highlighting the opinions and perspectives of the SpaceNews community.
| | | | | | |
The European Space Agency has set an ambitious strategy toward achieving a debris-neutral orbital environment, laying out the priorities it deemed necessary to preserve access to space for generations. But the Zero Debris guidebook didn't go far enough, argued Richard Jacklin, Plextek's commercial lead for space, and James Snape, founder of Aphelion Industries. In their opinion, "strategy and policy alone are not enough. Delivering the Zero Debris Vision will depend on industry's ability to move from commitment to capability, from regulation to real-world implementation."
They go on to describe how achieving Zero Debris will require "a coalition of innovators working toward a shared operational goal" through transparent partnerships between government and commercial partners, open data sharing across the space ecosystem.
As they wrote, "The next two years will determine whether the world achieves ESA's 2030 target or misses it by a generation."
See the full article here. | | | | |
Taiwan's president, Lai Ching-te, announced last year that the country would increase defense spending and pursue a "T-Dome" air-and-missile defense system reminiscent of Israel's Iron Dome and America's under-development Golden Dome as a way to protect itself from China. But Taiwan's approach to T-Dome development is all wrong, aerospace expert and former distinguished faculty member of Taiwan's War College Holmes Liao wrote in a recent commentary.
He warned that Taiwan's seeming expectation that it would be able to "plug and play" existing capabilities from other countries — namely the United States and Israel — is misguided.
"T-Dome is not something Taiwan can buy; it is something Taiwan must engineer," Liao wrote. "The island country's threat environment is not the same as that of Israel or the U.S. Instead, in important ways, it is more complicated than both."
Liao goes on to describe the system-of-systems engineering, internal reforms and overall approach that he would recommend Taiwan take to establish an effective defense system.
"Deterrence begins at home, and it is maintained through engineering," Liao wrote. "Taiwan must recognize that external support is not a substitute for internal reform. This means modernizing the military mindset and the defense industrial base to prioritize system integration over the mere accumulation of hardware."
See the rest of the article here. | | | | | |  | | A seized Venezuelan crude oil tanker is shown in December in the Caribbean Sea in a Vantor image created with the AI-powered Maritime Sentry system. Credit: Vantor
| | | What will 2026 bring for space?
In case you missed it, our January magazine featured commentaries, predictions and recommendations for the next year of progress in space from over a dozen experts in the space community.
Their articles centered around a few themes: maintaining American leadership in space in the face of China's rapidly accelerating space program, managing the growing field of garbage orbiting Earth and improving the next generation of spacecraft through better fuel and maneuverability.
Some highlights include Vantor CEO Dan Smoot calling on the geospatial intelligence community to help onboard AI understand the physical word; Charles Galbreath, director of the Mitchell Institute's Spacepower Advantage Center of Excellence, arguing that space operations must defend themselves by become more "dynamic" through refuellable spacecraft and maneuverable satellites; Brad Tousley, former head of DARPA's Tactical Technology Office declaring a "nuclear renaissance" for space; and executives from Zeno Power predicting that spacecraft will soon be able to survive the harsh lunar night.
Check out the full package here.
SpaceNews is committed to publishing our community's diverse perspectives. Whether you're an academic, executive, engineer or even just a concerned citizen of the cosmos, send your arguments and viewpoints to opinion (at) spacenews.com to be considered for publication online or in our next magazine. If you have something to submit, read some of our recent opinion articles and our submission guidelines to get a sense of what we're looking for. The perspectives shared in these opinion articles are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent their employers or professional affiliations. | | | | | | | FROM SPACENEWS |  | | Join us in DC on Wednesday, Jan. 21: The U.S. Space Force of 2040 will operate in a far more contested, congested, and fast-moving domain than the Guardians of today — one where space control, speed and resiliency will define U.S. military advantage. The next installment in our series with Johns Hopkins University will examine what the Space Force must become to succeed against growing threats. SpaceNews' Sandra Erwin will sit down with Space Force Gen. Shawn Bratton following a panel discussion with leaders from Vantor, K2 Space and JHU APL. Register now. | | | | |
No comments:
Post a Comment