For decades, military communications from space relied primarily on geostationary satellites positioned 22,000 miles above Earth. These distant spacecraft provide secure, reliable voice and data connectivity for United States defense operations worldwide, with a small club of operators — Intelsat, Viasat, SES and Eutelsat — dominating a market that has been dramatically disrupted by the rise of Starlink.

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Sandra Erwin writes about military space programs, policy, technology and the industry that supports this sector. She has covered the military, the Pentagon, Congress and the defense industry for nearly two decades as editor of NDIA’s National Defense...