Hearing from the Space Industry on the Impact of Tariffs

In this issue, we are digging into the impact of U.S. tariff policy on the space industry, with stories from freelancers Anne Wainscott Sargent and Tereza Pultarova on how tariffs are impacting U.S. companies and companies based outside of the U.S. We hear a range of perspectives in these stories, and many are describing a pull back of investment and uncertainty as tariffs have been levied and pulled back, with shifting policy.

Via Satellite ran a poll in the spring on this issue, and 83% of respondents said they believe that tariffs will lead to higher prices for satellite technology. Only 14% of respondents said tariffs will have little to no impact. However, the space industry is global and our poll indicates it will stay that way. More than half — 63% of respondents — said they will not become more of a regional player because of the impact of tariffs.

We will continue to cover the impact of tariffs on the space industry and encourage readers to reach out to share how it’s impacting your businesses.

Also in this edition, we commemorate the winners of Satellite Executive and Technology of the Year for 2024 with interviews with Emile de Rijk, CEO of SWISSto12, and Slingshot Aerospace CEO Tim Solms about the company’s Agatha AI tool.

I look forward to these interviews every year to dig deep with some of the leading voices in the satellite industry. Both of these winners have compelling stories — de Rijk competed in the very first Startup Space competition in 2017, making it a full circle moment to receive this award. And Slingshot Aerospace’s win demonstrates the importance of space domain awareness as space becomes more congested and contested, and the importance of AI in sifting through all of the data.

Now that the spring event season has wrapped up, it was great to see many of you at SATELLITE, Space Symposium, and GEOINT.