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Tracking the trends shaping space infrastructure, asset finance, and the commercial space economy.
Latest Articles
Build-to-suit gateways: what Telesat's SatPort deal says about ground-segment capital
SatPort will develop, build and host the landing stations for Telesat Lightspeed, while Telesat retains ownership, control and operations of all network elements. The split between hosted facility and owned network element is where the residual sits, and it is the question a sale-leaseback and a finance lease each answer differently.
Caelum at Space Tech Expo Europe, Bremen, 17–19 November 2026
Caelum will be at Space Tech Expo Europe in Bremen from 17 to 19 November. If you build, operate or fund satellites or ground infrastructure and want to talk about sale-leaseback or refinancing, book a slot.
World Space Business Week 2026: satellite refinancing moves up the agenda
Four days in Paris at Novaspace's World Space Business Week, including the Summit for Satellite Financing. The conversations that mattered were about GEO refinancing, who carries risk on an in-orbit delivery, the ground estate, and how much insurance capacity is actually left.
Ground station financing: what a £37m teleport sale and a blocked carve-out reveal
A 44-antenna ground estate changed hands for £37m in August. Seven months earlier, a 70-teleport carve-out was blocked on sovereignty grounds. Set beside a US$1.94bn constellation raise and a US$600m GEO bus award, the two tell you where capital is flowing in space infrastructure, and which layer it is missing.
Satellite life extension and the lease term: what in-orbit servicing changes
As many as half of all GEO communications satellites retire with their subsystems still working, stranded by an empty tank. Life extension now has flight history and, since July, a reusable servicer. For a lessor that turns the end of design life from a write-off date into a term in the lease.
Orbital sustainability update: the underwriters have set a price
In January we argued that end-of-life compliance was becoming a precondition for insurability, and therefore for finance. Seven months on, the space insurance market has put numbers on it, ESA has put numbers on the compliance gap, and a second cost of congestion has surfaced that no disposal plan covers: availability.
The lunar economy is not a market yet, but the contract tenor is arriving
Nearly 330 lunar missions are forecast for 2025–2034, almost all of them government-funded. What has changed for an asset financier is the shape of the contracts: five-plus-five service awards and a fifteen-year procurement horizon are the first cislunar structures that read like offtake rather than grant.
Why a space lessor goes to Farnborough: aviation finance meets satellites
One day at the Farnborough International Airshow, no booked meetings, and the same four questions from every aviation lessor who learned what Caelum does. The answers say a lot about where satellite sale-leaseback stands today.
European Space Forum 2026: what sovereignty means for space asset finance
Two days in Brussels on the EU Space Act, sovereignty and IRIS². Read as a financing agenda rather than a policy one, the Forum described a demand profile: long-dated, public-sector-anchored, and in need of capital structured to match it.
What flexibility really buys you
Software-defined payloads break the single-tenant economics of a satellite. Why the Space Inspire and OneSat generation makes sale-leaseback credible in 2026 in a way it was not in 2010, and what the aviation airframe-versus-engines analogue looks like on orbit.
SATELLITE 2026, Washington DC: event recap
Caelum Space Leasing was at SATELLITE 2026 (SATShow) in Washington, DC, meeting operators, manufacturers and capital partners from across the space economy.
SpaceX IPO: what it means for the commercial space economy
SpaceX's anticipated listing, most likely via a Starlink spin-off, would hand the sector its first daily-marked price for an orbital asset business. Reported figures run past $350bn. What a credible public benchmark actually changes for how the rest of the market is financed.
In-orbit servicing: the rise of satellite maintenance
Refuelling, life-extension and robotic inspection are turning fixed-lifespan satellites into maintainable infrastructure. What that does to useful-life, depreciation and end-of-lease assumptions, and why the aviation MRO analogue only holds for high-value GEO assets so far.
Event recap: Caelum at Space-Comm Expo Europe, London
Caelum Space Leasing was at Space-Comm Expo Europe at ExCeL London, meeting operators, manufacturers and capital partners from across the European space industry.
The ground segment: why Earth-based space infrastructure matters
Satellites get the headlines; the dishes that talk to them get the contracted revenue. Why the ground segment, now shifting to a Ground Station as a Service model, is the cleaner leasing asset, and where Elfordstown and EU sovereignty fit Caelum's thesis.
Satellite spectrum: the most valuable real estate you can't see
Orbital slots and frequency rights are intangible assets that can outweigh the satellite they sit on. How the ITU filing regime, bringing-into-use rules and the C-band precedent shape repossession risk, residual value and what a lessor must diligence in any sale-leaseback.
From aviation to orbit: what aircraft leasing teaches us about space
The €350bn+ global aircraft-leasing market, much of it run from Dublin, is the working blueprint for space asset finance. Where the analogy maps cleanly onto orbit, where it breaks, and why an Irish Section 110 lessor is the natural home for it.
Space sustainability: debris, de-orbiting, and the business case
Orbital-debris rules are tightening from a 25-year guideline to five-year disposal mandates and a 2030 zero-debris target. Why end-of-life compliance is becoming a precondition for insurability, and therefore financeability, and why active debris removal is not yet bankable.