Space

Russia’s Ukraine build-up is the latest example of how some information can no longer be kept secret. In the past eight years, little short of a revolution has occurred in the world of “OSINT” – that is, Open Source Intelligence, information gathered from publicly accessible data – and especially Imagery Intelligence (IMINT), which analyses images gathered by assets from satellites to spies. Indeed, writing as a former Defence Imagery Analyst, the resources now available to individual citizens approaches those once reserved for the superpowers. The changes in publicly available (in contrast to government-used) OSINT and IMINT are highlighted by comparing Russia’s aggression against Ukraine in 2014 with the Kremlin’s current build‑up against Kyiv. Eight years ago, limited satellite...

NEW YORK: The last few years have been marked by trade wars and hot wars. This year may bring with it star wars, as space - the “final economic frontier” - becomes the focus of a global race for dominance by both public and private actors. Elon Musk’s SpaceX, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, Orbital ATK, ViaSat, SES, OneWeb and more than 10,000 other commercial space companies have grown over the past two decades into a burgeoning sector known as “new space", dedicated to growing private space access and space station servicing to satellite operations, defence technology, data analytics and even more speculative areas like space tourism, manufacturing and asteroid mining. SpaceX is the best known new space player, having launched thousands of satellites for both public and private use. Musk’s St...

Military operations in a more transparent world

The new space race could turn science fiction into reality