#OpenSourceSpace

[sedahewitt]

How Satellite Startups Are Rewriting the Rules of Aerospace

By Seda Hewitt

Aerospace used to mean a few things: government agencies, billion-dollar contractors, and decades-long project timelines. It meant white rooms, test benches, long approval chains, and a kind of sacred untouchability that felt... well, untouchable.

But something’s changed.

Now, a satellite might be built in a garage. It could be launched on a shared rocket with a dozen others. The team behind it might be a handful of engineers and students. Or a small, focused startup with one clear idea and a shoestring budget.

And surprisingly—or maybe not—many of those missions are working. Some are doing things once thought impossible. These aren’t just side projects. They’re part of a deep shift.

Satellite startups are rewriting the rules of aerospace. Not slowly. Not subtly. But unmistakably.

A Different Kind of Launch

There was a time when putting anything into orbit took ten years and a small nation's treasury. You had to book an entire launch vehicle. You needed a custom satellite bus. Testing ran for months. Documentation filled binders.

But now?

With shared launch models and commercial rideshare programs from companies like SpaceX and Rocket Lab, access to space is faster, cheaper, and more flexible. You can book a CubeSat slot almost like booking cargo on a flight.

At Interstellar Communication Holdings Inc., our PocketQube satellite HADES‑ICM flew aboard a rideshare mission. We didn’t need a custom rocket. Just a slot, a plan, and a payload that fit the parameters. It wasn’t simple—but it was achievable. On a startup timeline. On a startup budget.

That’s a massive shift. Not just logistically—but culturally.

Speed Over Size

Traditional aerospace has always prioritized perfection. Rightfully so. When your satellite costs half a billion dollars, you can’t afford to fail.

But startups work differently. They test in sprints. They build minimum viable satellites. They iterate—sometimes in orbit.

We’ve embraced this philosophy in our own work. With small form factors like PocketQubes, we don’t need to wait five years to deploy an idea. We can prototype, test, launch, and refine. Sometimes even within the same year.

Speed doesn’t mean recklessness. It just means a different risk profile. And in many cases, that agility is an advantage—not a liability.

Small Is the New Strategic

A common misconception is that small satellites mean small impact. But that’s no longer true.

Today’s smallsats can:

Provide real-time agricultural data to farmers in developing regions.

Monitor emissions from industrial zones.

Track endangered wildlife across continents.

Offer backup communication during natural disasters.

Startups are leading the charge in these areas—not because they have more money, but because they have more freedom. Freedom to try, to fail, to try again. Freedom to design missions around niche problems, not general ones.

At Interstellar Communication Holdings Inc., we didn’t set out to duplicate what legacy aerospace already does. We wanted to test new radio protocols in a lean, focused, low-orbit environment. And we did it, not despite being small—but because we were small.

Open Tools, Shared Knowledge

Another rule being rewritten is that aerospace must be proprietary, secretive, closed off.

Startups tend to think differently. Many of us use open-source software, publish mission data, and contribute to global communities like SatNOGS or GNU Radio. This openness doesn’t weaken the mission—it strengthens it.

For example, when our satellite sent out its first beacon, it wasn’t just our team listening. Amateur radio operators around the world were ready. That kind of support ecosystem wouldn’t exist without open culture.

Startups embrace it. Legacy aerospace is starting to notice.

Recognition from the Global Stage

Of course, rewriting rules doesn’t mean working in isolation. It means entering new arenas—with new voices, new metrics, and new partnerships.

That’s why we’re especially proud that Interstellar Communication Holdings Inc., based in the United States, is a nominee for the 2025 Go Global Awards, happening this November in London and hosted by the International Trade Council.

This event isn’t just an awards ceremony. It’s a convening of minds—startups, corporations, governments—each exploring how innovation can cross borders and shift paradigms.

For space startups, it’s a chance to be seen not as disruptors on the fringe, but as contributors at the center.

Final Thought

Legacy aerospace isn’t going away. Nor should it. There’s a place for massive space telescopes, deep space probes, and long-duration platforms.

But alongside them, startups are carving out something new. Something leaner. Faster. More open. More human.

They’re asking different questions. Building different things. Launching at different speeds.

And perhaps most importantly, they’re proving that space isn’t just for the few—it’s for the bold, the resourceful, the curious.

The rules were made for a different era. It might be time to write some new ones.

[sedahewitt]

The Role of Open-Source in Building Space Technologies

By Seda Hewitt

It wasn’t long ago that space tech felt locked behind sealed doors—governments, contractors, and corporations working in high-security labs, often in total isolation. But if you look closely today, something quite different is happening.

Open-source has quietly—and now increasingly—become a foundational piece in how modern space technologies are built.

At first glance, that sounds risky. Space is high-stakes. It’s expensive. It’s complex. Why would anyone trust shared, openly developed code or hardware designs to run in such an unforgiving environment?

But, as I’ve seen in our work at Interstellar Communication Holdings Inc. in the United States, the question isn’t really why anymore. It’s how far can it go?

Open-Source: A Quick Reintroduction

To be clear, “open-source” doesn’t just mean free software. It means anyone can access, use, study, modify, and distribute it. It’s about transparency and collaboration—values that feel surprisingly at home in space, where no single entity can solve everything alone.

And it’s not limited to code. In space tech, open-source includes:

Flight software

Ground station software

Antenna designs

Satellite bus schematics

Tracking databases

RF protocol libraries

All of it developed, iterated, and often deployed by a distributed community of engineers, students, scientists, and just… curious minds.

Building on Shared Foundations

Let me be honest: no small satellite team builds from scratch. Not anymore.

In our PocketQube work with the HADES‑ICM mission, for instance, open-source played a role in how we prototyped signal processing, how we tested antenna tuning, and even how we logged beacon telemetry.

Libraries like GNU Radio, ground station tools like SatNOGS, and even parts of our onboard software owe their roots to open repositories. These aren’t untested hacks. They’re robust, widely used, and often stress-tested by thousands of people worldwide.

Instead of reinventing the wheel, we spent more time fine-tuning what matters most to us.

A Case Study: SatNOGS

SatNOGS is a community-built, open-source global network of satellite ground stations. It allows anyone—from university students to national agencies—to track, receive, and share satellite data.

Why does that matter?

Because small satellite operators, like us, often can’t afford a global ground station network. But with SatNOGS, we’ve received signal reports from Indonesia, Poland, Brazil—all using hardware built by volunteers and connected by open-source software.

It’s a win-win. We get telemetry. The community gets involved. Everyone learns.

Reducing Cost, Not Quality

There’s a myth that open-source means “cheap and cheerful.” But in space, that doesn’t hold up. Open-source projects are often maintained by incredibly skilled engineers. Some are volunteers. Others work at companies that support open development.

And because the code is visible, bugs get caught. Design flaws are discussed. There's accountability in the open.

We’ve used open-source PCB layouts, communication protocols, and thermal modeling tools. Not because we had no choice—but because they were good. Really good.

Innovation Through Collaboration

Open-source doesn’t just save time. It accelerates innovation.

Let’s say someone in Argentina develops a better way to manage low-power sleep cycles in a CubeSat. If they publish that method, someone in South Korea can adopt it. Then a team in Ghana builds on it to support their own Earth-observation satellite. That’s not a theory. It’s already happening.

At Interstellar Communication Holdings Inc., we’ve learned that the best ideas often come from unexpected places. That’s why we contribute back when we can—code patches, feedback, bug reports. It’s not a favor. It’s how the whole system gets stronger.

A Place at the Global Table

This November, Interstellar Communication Holdings Inc. will participate as a nominee at the 2025 Go Global Awards, hosted by the International Trade Council in London. It’s an event that draws together people from all over the world, in all kinds of sectors—not just to celebrate, but to connect.

And that’s exactly what open-source is about: connection. A distributed network of minds, solving problems together, across boundaries.

In some ways, it’s the same spirit, just applied differently. Whether you're sharing launchpads or Git repositories, the goal is the same—do more, together, than we could alone.

We’re proud to be part of that movement, and part of that global conversation.

It’s Not Perfect, But It’s Real

Open-source doesn’t eliminate all problems. There can be licensing confusion, maintenance gaps, fragmented forks. And sometimes, things just… break.

But in space, failure is expected. What matters is how you recover, how you learn, how you iterate.

Open-source offers a faster loop for that. A more transparent one. And maybe—just maybe—a more resilient one too.

Final Thoughts

Space used to be closed off. Secretive. Elitist, even.

Now, with open-source, it’s becoming participatory.

Anyone with a laptop, an idea, and some patience can contribute to space missions. That’s powerful. That’s democratizing. And it’s happening right now.

If you’re building something in space, odds are you’re already standing on the shoulders of open-source. The only question left is: what will you give back?