The commercial space turn
Commercial space was not inevitable. It happened because specific laws were written and specific licences were granted. The incidents below mark the moments when the space economy became something a private company could legally participate in.
SpaceX geofencing cuts Starlink in Myanmar conflict zones
Enforcement of SpaceX's own registration rules threatens to switch off Starlink across Myanmar's conflict zones, where it had become the main internet link for early-warning systems, schools, ambulances and independent media after the state destroyed local networks.
Wassenaar tightens space items
The Wassenaar Arrangement updates restrict satellite components and dual-use space technology to a longer list of states of concern. National-security exemptions for routine engineering proliferate.
Iridium gateway blocks
Iridium, the first global satellite-phone network, runs into permissioning at every gateway. American regulators block licences in markets deemed states of concern, and a global service quietly becomes a discretionary one.
Kyl–Bingaman Amendment
US law historically capped commercial satellite imagery resolution over Israel and the Palestinian Territories. For two decades it was effectively impossible for humanitarian organisations to publish high-resolution imagery of Gaza.
Ofeq-3 and resolution caps
Israel's Ofeq-3 reconnaissance satellite reaches orbit, and informal arrangements take shape under which American commercial vendors agree to cap the resolution at which Israeli territory may be imaged.
Commercial Space Launch Act
Washington codifies a launch-licensing regime that any non-US payload must navigate. The framing is safety; the practical effect is a permissioning system over who gets to fly American rockets.
France funds SPOT
CNES commits to the SPOT programme to break European reliance on US Landsat imagery. The first commercial high-resolution Earth-imagery competitor is born — funded explicitly to escape American gatekeeping.