There's a growing understanding that space-based capabilities are critical for national defense strategies, and defense demand for commercial space systems has been a key trend in 2025 influencing both satellite communications, manufacturing, and imagery and sensing.

2025 brought the announcement of the Golden Dome planned missile defense architecture, and a steep ramp-up in space investment in nations around the globe. Nations are working to secure sovereign communications and access to space-based intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) data.

This episode of On Orbit shares a webinar Via Satellite editors hosted in December on space and defense trends for 2026. Experts from Lanteris Space Systems and BlackSky shared some of the key takeaways from this trend in 2025, how commercial companies are evolving their offerings to answer the call, and what's ahead in defense adoption of commercial satellite technologies in 2026.

This episode features Krupal Patel, senior director of National Security Space Business Development for Lanteris Space Systems and Scot Currie, vice president of Geospatial Solutions for BlackSky.

The webinar was sponsored by Lanteris and BlackSky.