SmallSat 2025 in Salt Lake City felt like a turning point for the space industry. Not just because the conference moved from Logan to Salt Lake City, though that mattered. The new venue gave the industry room to breathe. More floor space, easier logistics, and plenty of chances to bump into the people you needed to meet. The change of scenery too, seemed to echo the bigger story of the week: an industry that’s scaling up, professionalizing, and tackling problems that go way beyond prototypes.
From Exquisite to Scalable
One clear theme was the shift from exquisite, one-off systems to constellations built for scale. The kind of programs that used to celebrate technical elegance are now being judged on manufacturability, cost, and repeatability. Customers aren’t asking about the one spacecraft you can build. They want to know who can deliver dozens, maybe hundreds, and do it without betting everything on a fragile supply chain.
Multi-Orbit Architectures
The conversations stretched well beyond low Earth orbit. People were talking about LEO, MEO, GEO, Lunar, and even Martian orbits as pieces of the same puzzle. Multi-orbit architectures are shaping roadmaps for both commercial and government programs, creating real urgency for infrastructure that can flex and scale.
Commercial and Defense Convergence
At SmallSat 2025 the gap between commercial innovation and government adoption keeps shrinking. Agencies from NASA to the Department of Defense are looking to tap into commercial agility and push it to scale. You could hear it in the hallways. From Viasat’s new HaloNet portfolio to Blue Canyon’s Golden Dome bus, proliferated concepts are already reshaping national security space.
The Supply Chain Challenge
If there was a phrase of the week, it was “supply chain” The next chapter of space won’t be won with big visions alone. It will be built in factories. The companies that can prove they have real manufacturing capacity, vertical integration, and a plan to derisk production are the ones everyone wants to talk to.
Our Takeaway: What SmallSat 2025 in Salt Lake City Means
For us the week confirmed what we already believe. Antennas are the backbone of orbital infrastructure and building them at scale is a defining challenge of this decade. Every conversation we had, whether with commercial operators, government agencies, or defense partners, circled back to the same set of needs. Manufacturability. Delivery. Confidence that ideas on paper can reach orbit.
The industry has grown up. The problems are harder now. Scaling production, derisking supply chains, delivering systems on time and at cost is the work ahead. And if we are a little tired, in the best way, this week that made it clear just how much the future is here. Tendeg is proud to be in the middle of it.
