Constellations - Explore Space Network Technologies with Industry Leaders

206 - Massive NGSO Deployments, New AI Capabilities and Enhanced Space Domain Awareness

Constellations - Explore Space Network Technologies with Industry Leaders

Show Notes

The number of satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) is poised to explode over the coming years as more mega-constellations come online. This has the potential to bring rise to new potential threats in space. The massive scale of deployments is driving the need to leverage artificial intelligence to make better sense of the exponentially growing space domain. Listen to Slingshot Aerospace's VP of Strategy and Policy, Audrey Schaffer as she discusses the role of AI for space domain awareness. Audrey shares insights on the new capabilities AI enables and how it is addressing some of the key challenges in space.

More from Constellations - Explore Space Network Technologies with Industry Leaders

Oct 14, 2026

Live from the show floor of SmallSat, Al Tadros of Redwire explores why orbital data centers are quickly becoming a realistic and exciting architectural possibility. He explores how advances in AI, launch capacity, power generation, and thermal management are making in‑orbit processing economically and technically viable. Autonomous operations, constellation‑based architectures, and future lunar infrastructure could position space‑based processing as a flexible extension of Earth's data center capacity, supporting critical workloads for both commercial and government missions.

Sep 30, 2026

Live from the show floor of Smallsat, Dr. David Voss of the Space Warfighting Analysis Center (SWAC) explores how next‑generation mission architectures are shifting toward hybrid, distributed and resilient designs. He explains how onboard processing, autonomy, multi‑orbit integration and cross‑domain interoperability are redefining how future constellations will operate in a contested space environment and why resilience must be engineered across systems, not treated as a single‑system attribute.

Sep 16, 2026

Chad Fish, CTO of Orion Space Solutions, outlines the core constraints that determine whether a VLEO mission is viable and how altitude choices reshape spacecraft behavior and sensing performance. He also discusses how missions like ACMES push thermal imaging, atmospheric measurements and multi‑instrument operations into more demanding territory.

Sep 7, 2026

In this episode, Kat Hickey and Federico Trovarelli of Novaspace discuss the industry's transition from voluntary best practices to measurable economic, operational and regulatory strategies for preserving the space environment. Kat and Federico explore how orbital sustainability is evolving from an environmental concern into a business imperative shaping investment, regulation, spacecraft design and operations.

Sep 2, 2026

​​Live from the show floor of Smallsat, Constellations is joined by Jonas Aslund and Viktor Pankov of SSC Space, who dive into one of the most important shifts happening across the sector: the emergence of a new space infrastructure built on global ground networks. As satellite demand continues to grow, the next generation of infrastructure is becoming more essential.​

See all episodes →