Some people collect merch. Others collect business cards. We collect observations. (…and stickers, socks, keychains, T-shirts… you name)

• Is the networking worth your time?
• Does the exhibition floor create real business opportunities?
• Are the side events a filler or something worthwhile?
• Is the content actually relevant and the speakers not boring af?
• Is there decent food?
• Is it all just hype and buzzwords or…
• Would we actually come back?

Because attending a conference is an investment. Registration fees, flights, hotels, days away from work, and countless conversations all add up.

23–26 August 2026
Small Satellite Conference • USA
Representing: HyImpulse

16–17 September 2026
ESA Industry Space Days • Netherlands
Representing: SpaceWatch.Global

27–29 October 2026
Software Defined Space Conference • Estonia
Representing: ORBITALYX

2–8 November 2026
Czech Space Week • Czechia
Representing: ORBITALYX

17–19 November 2026
Space Tech Expo Europe • Germany
Representing: HyImpulse

20–23 January 2027
Winter Satellite Workshop • Finland
Representing: ORBITALYX

What to Expect

This is not about declaring winners. It is about sharing practical observations that help people decide where to invest their time, budget, and attention.

There will be no rankings, just honest impressions of the networking, organization, content, exhibition, business opportunities, and the overall experience.

I was told to look at the famous map of US defense consolidation between 1980 and 2001. Dozens of companies gradually disappeared into five enormous corporations.

It looks like a family tree.

Except most of the family has been eaten.

NewSpace was supposed to be the alternative: Smaller companies. Faster development. More competition. Specialized suppliers. Less dependence on a handful of traditional primes controlling the entire chain.

Now look at the market. (dramatic pause, hamster meme)

Companies are buying suppliers, bringing production in-house, and building megafactories because relying on someone else is becoming less and less attractive. At the same time, launch companies want to build satellites, satellite companies want to operate constellations, and everyone suddenly wants to do everything.

Everyone is going end-to-end.

Meanwhile, smaller companies are trying to survive long enough to become part of that story.

Because a brilliant prototype is not the same thing as a functioning business.

So, is NewSpace becoming Old Space again?

NewSpace created an explosion of specialized companies making propulsion systems, antennas, software, payloads, satellite buses, launch vehicles, and practically every component imaginable.

That fragmentation was great for innovation. It also meant depending on hundreds of relatively young companies to deliver space-qualified hardware on time, every time.

Yeah, right.

It works… until one supplier is late, one critical component fails, or one promising startup runs out of money halfway through the project.

Space is not software with a rocket emoji on top. You cannot just patch the propulsion system after integration, or magically download a new reaction wheel from the cloud.

So, companies started asking themselves a simple question: why depend on someone else if we can do it ourselves?

Innovation -> fragmentation.

Fragmentation -> inconsistency.

Inconsistency -> consolidation.

Rocket Lab may be the easiest example of what comes next. It started with launch, then expanded into spacecraft, components, solar power, separation systems, software, sensors and communications. Its move toward Iridium would combine launch, manufacturing, satellite operations, infrastructure, spectrum and customers under one corporate roof. WOOHOO!

This is not a company expanding its services.

This is a prime contractor being assembled in real time.

Call them neo-primes. Call them next-generation primes.

The old primes were built through decades of defense consolidation, and the new ones are being built through VC, public markets, acquisitions, government contracts, and understanding that controlling the supply chain is much easier than trusting it.

Governments looove talking about resilient ecosystems, sovereign capabilities and diverse supplier bases. Then they award enormous projects to a handful of companies large enough to finance production, deal with delays, and remain alive for the next twenty years.

I get the logic. One big (vertically integrated) supplier is easier to manage than ten smaller companies. But it creates the same old cycle:

The big companies get bigger. They have more money, so they buy more companies, bring more things in-house, build bigger factories and become even harder to compete with. Then they win another contract, and the cycle starts all over again.

Meanwhile, everyone else is expected to scale, prove flight heritage, stay financially healthy, and keep their company alive long enough for procurement to finally decide what it wants to do.

Good luck with that.

I completely understand why companies are vertically integrating. Nobody wants to depend on a supplier that can hold an entire mission hostage.

But if one company launches the rocket, builds the satellite, manufactures the components, owns the infrastructure and sells the service…

You know the saying: if it looks like a duck, swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s probably a duck. So, if a company owns every critical part of the value chain, what do we call it?

Vertical integration… or monopolization?

Sure, a handful of giant companies can make things move faster.

But they also become companies that are simply too important to fail.

And I am not sure that is the kind of resilience we should be aiming for.

Is NewSpace becoming Old Space?

Maybe not culturally. We will keep the hoodies, founder stories, and inspirational posts about changing humanity.

But the more I look at it, the more familiar it starts to feel.

A few giant players at the top. Everyone else trying to become one of them… or hoping one of them buys them.

Congratulations:

We finally disrupted Old Space.

…by building a new one.

You know the drill, the very moment someone says:

“Before we continue, please, sign our NDA.”

The 11-page masterpiece, written by a lawyer sometime between the Industrial Revolution and the invention of the internet.

And so it begins:

Three weeks later, two companies that wanted to talk about satellites, software, launch services, or procurement are now debating the legal definition of “confidential information.”

Most NDAs are trying to achieve exactly the same thing:

• Do not leak information.
• Do not misuse information.
• Do not be an idiot.

That is the entire spirit of the document.

Yet many organizations insist on forcing their own template as if it were a secret family barbecue sauce recipe passed down through generations.

Some clauses genuinely matter:

One of the few NDA clauses that is relevant in 2026 is the AI clause.

Not the paragraph about whether confidential information survives for three years or five.

The one that says: ” Please, do not paste our proprietary data into ChatGPT.”

Engineers, sales teams, marketers, and managers are all under pressure to move faster. AI helps. But feeding confidential technical documents, customer information, pricing data, source code, or proprietary designs into third-party AI systems creates risks that many organizations are still learning how to manage.

Most leaks will not happen because somebody is a spy. They will happen because somebody wanted a quicker summary, a better email, or a faster proposal.

Surprisingly, many NDA templates still do not address this at all.

If there is one thing worth updating in your NDA this year, it is probably not the dispute resolution clause from 2008. It is making sure confidential information stays out of tools that were never intended to become your company’s document repository.

Most other clauses are copy-pasted survivors from previous agreements, carrying obsolete legal language nobody has questioned for years.

Instead, everyone gets trapped in a wicked administrative escape room where the final puzzle is agreeing whether confidential information survives three years, five years, or forever.

At Orbitalyx, there is a growing suspicion that some companies spend more time negotiating NDAs than discussing actual business.

The most efficient partnerships are rarely built on the most aggressive paperwork.

They are built on trust, competence, and a mutual desire to get something done.

So here is a radical proposal:

If the other party already has a reasonable NDA, consider signing it.

The goal is to protect information, not to win the NDA Mundial.

Because every day spent negotiating templates is one less day spent building satellites, winning customers, or getting to orbit.

And unlike launch windows, NDA review cycles seem to have no end date…

The European space sector needs engineers, entrepreneurs, researchers, business developers, and communicators. Building those skills is one of the goals of the EU Space Academy.

The Academy offers a growing catalogue of free courses covering topics such as the space economy, space applications, Earth observation, GNSS, entrepreneurship, fundraising, public procurement, international markets, and space security.

Alongside the training programme, participants can access one-on-one mentoring sessions with professionals from across the European space ecosystem.

As part of the mentor pool, I will be supporting participants in areas including:

• Business development in the space sector
• Industry visibility and positioning
• Communications and storytelling
• LinkedIn
• Conference participation and networking
• Market access and ecosystem navigation
• Building partnerships across the European space industry

Space careers are often portrayed as purely technical. In reality, successful missions and companies also depend on people who can communicate, build relationships, identify opportunities, and connect ideas with the right partners.

If you are a student, entrepreneur, researcher, or professional looking to grow within the European space ecosystem, feel free to book a mentoring session.

Learn more about the Academy:

EU Space Academy

Book a mentoring session:

Daniela Jović Mentor Profile

#EUSpaceAcademy #EUSpace

I have noticed something strange about our industry:

We seem to measure conference success by the level of inconvenience it causes.

If the hallways are packed, the coffee queue stretches halfway across the venue, and you spend the day pushing through the crowds while two stages battle for acoustic supremacy, everyone leaves saying: Wow, that place was busy.

But if the venue is spacious, the hallways are wide, the lighting is pleasant (with proper sunlight), and you can actually hear the person standing next to you, people start wondering whether attendance was lower than expected.

Somewhere along the way, we started confusing claustrophobia with success.

SmallSat Europe was a great example of how things can be done right:

The event felt open, bright, and comfortable. There was carpet absorbing the noise. The audience used headphones to listen to talks and presentations.

And most importantly: You could walk from one side of the venue to the other without feeling like you were participating in a Kessler syndrome event.

Customers met suppliers. Startups meet investors. Companies met future partners. Old colleagues reconnected.

The place was busy.

It just was not busy in the sense that the gold standard is fitting as many people as possible into a venue using compression algorithms that would make WinRAR proud.

What SmallSat Europe gets right is that it fills a genuine gap in the European event calendar. There are plenty of conferences throughout the year, but surprisingly few major opportunities in spring to do some hardcore B2B or even B2G networking, and generate fresh leads before summer arrives.

The location certainly helps. Amsterdam is one of the easiest cities in Europe to reach, and the venue is only sixteen minutes by train from the airport. No complicated transfers, no layovers, no “my hotel is technically located in another country.”

You arrive, get your badge, and start meeting people.

Room for improvement? Yes. I would ditch the “half-day” concept. And… as far as I know, the next edition should be full three days.

(and the recipe for all the drama)

And it turns out that working with your heart is both a superpower and a guaranteed recipe for drama.

The Advantage Nobody Talks About

In industries like the space sector, where projects stretch across multiple years and involve a multitude of partners, that level of commitment is not optional.

People who care deeply are often the ones who carry things through the difficult moments and make sure they actually reach the finish line.

That is the beautiful part.

The Part Nobody Mentions

But there is another side to working with your heart.

When you care deeply, you also feel deeply.

You celebrate the wins almost like personal victories.
But you also feel the misunderstandings, the mistakes, and the tensions much more strongly.

The Drama Ingredient

The Balance Question

If I am completely honest, life would probably be easier if I were more rational and a little less emotional about my work. Calmer reactions, fewer sleepless nights, less drama. Sometimes I genuinely wonder what that would feel like.

Most of the things I have built happened precisely because I cared too much. Because I pushed when it would have been easier to step back. Because I felt responsible for outcomes even when technically I did not have to.

Working with my heart is part of how I operate. It shapes how I approach projects, partnerships, and responsibility. I do not think I would want to remove that part of myself even if I could.

But there are things I do need to improve. Not who I am, but how I react in certain moments.

Taking a pause before responding. Giving emotions time to settle before acting. Allowing space to think and analyze instead of reacting immediately.

Sometimes the smartest move is simply not to act right away.

So perhaps the real goal is not to remove the heart from the work, but to learn how to steer it better. Passion can build incredible things, but it works best when it is not the only force behind the wheel. The balance might also come from working with people whose strengths complement your own.

And in my experience, nothing great has ever been built by people who felt indifferent about their work.

PS: And just to be clear, there is nothing wrong with working for stability. There is nothing wrong with paying your bills, doing your job well, and being satisfied with that. This perspective is simply about those who choose to push their passion further.

Doing field reporting for SpaceWatch.Global means a lot of camera time, plenty of interviews, and very little time to think. At one point, I found myself in a conversation with my video editor about something we both keep noticing:

Some of the smartest people in the room are surprisingly difficult to watch on stage.

Brilliant engineers. Deep technical knowledge. Real missions under their belt. And then the camera turns on, or they step on the stage, and suddenly it is twenty sentences, seventy-five acronyms, no oxygen, and a point that is MIA.

On the other side, some people look like they were born under studio lighting. No Instagram filter needed. Angelic smile, smooth voice, confidence over 9000.

And after exactly a minute and a half, you realize… There is not much behind it: polished appearance and zero substance.

There is also a third category we rarely talk about: the shy ones.

The ones who actually know their stuff but are terrified of saying something wrong. The ones who overthink every word because this is space, and mistakes feel expensive. So, they freeze. Or they talk too fast. Or they avoid the spotlight completely.

And honestly, I get it.

I also do not know everything. (Shocking, I know.) Sometimes I probably sound like I do. But half of communication is not about knowing everything. It is about knowing what you are trying to say.

You do not need all the answers. You need a clear message.

You can understand 60 percent of a topic and still explain one concept clearly. You can say, “This is what we are solving. This is why it matters.” You do not need to recite the entire datasheet to be valuable.

What we forget in the space industry is that communication is its own skill.

Engineers are trained to design and build. Founders are trained to raise money. Executives are trained to close deals. Almost nobody is trained to compress complexity into four minutes on camera without spiraling into jargon.

Some people need training. Some need confidence. Some need to simplify. Some need to… learn their stuff. And some of us just need to stop pretending we have to know everything before we are allowed to speak.

Most of us just need practice. If you want to get better, start small: Start on a local stage. Start in your own language. Explain your work to someone outside the industry. If they understand what you do, you are already winning. Do not wait for the big international panel to feel ready. Speak before you feel ready.

Professionalism is not perfection. It is trying, failing, improving, and getting better.

I realized we had entered a new phase of marketing the moment “industry powerhouse” stopped sounding ambitious and started sounding like a default setting.

Everyone is first now. Everyone is leading. Everyone is redefining something.

You can very much see it online, but you can no longer ignore it when you walk into a large conference expo hall. Not online, not on LinkedIn, but physically, surrounded by booths, banners, screens, and BIG words. Few places expose positioning faster than a big satellite conference like SATSHOW Week.

I am not an early bird. Never have been. I take my time, do my hair and makeup, and show up when the buzz is already full on. At that point, everything still works. Booths are staffed, screens are loud, and people are confident. From a distance, it all looks very impressive.

But wait for the end of the day.

That moment when the crowd is gone, meetings are done, and the energy evaporates. Booths are technically still there, but not really alive. Screens keep looping the same “industry powerhouse” messages to no one in particular. No pitch, no follow-up, no context.

When the hype disappears, only the message is left.

And that is usually enough to tell who had a plan, and who just printed a slogan and hoped for the best.

Unlike at smaller “boutique” conferences, on a big expo floor, there is no time to warm people up, walk them through your thinking, or explain what you really meant.

Attention is short, and nobody is there to translate your messaging for you. If it needs five minutes of explanation, you failed already.

“Industry powerhouse” does not explain what you do, who it is for, or why anyone should stop. It just signals that you wanted to sound important, which, on a crowded expo floor, is a fast way to be ignored.

The companies that attract real conversations usually do something very unsexy: they are clear about what they actually do, and equally clear about what they do not. You can usually tell the difference between companies that came with something concrete to talk about and those that showed up with slogans and nothing to properly back those up.

The irony of the Age of the Powerhouse is that the strongest companies rarely say it out loud.

If you are preparing for a major expo, the work is not in finding a better slogan. It is in being able to point to something you actually do, something real, and something that still holds up once the lights in the booth go out.

And if you made it all the way here, consider this my practical nudge: I’ve got you. If you are heading to SATShow Week, use my code SPACE002 to save on your ticket and give yourself a better shot at making the most of the week. Preparation starts before you step onto the expo floor.

See you there.

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What Generic Courses and Playbooks Leave Out

As a person who is an “impostor” in the industry, I have spent significant time learning on my own, reading and using freely available resources on space business and space education. Some are published by EUSPA, others by accelerators or educational platforms. They are usually meant to explain how the space industry works, how companies are built, and how business decisions are made.

Most of them are well-intentioned. But they tend to describe how space business should work. You know, the version you usually see in pitch decks, accelerator playbooks, and LinkedIn carousels.

What they do not really show is how the space business actually works.

I am not saying it is wrong… But it certainly is incomplete.

So this article is about observations from actually working in the space industry.

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How space business is usually explained

In educational materials, the space business is presented in a super straightforward and logical way:

• Define what you sell
• Define who you sell to
• Customer will compare offers
• …and decide based on: price, characteristics, and timelines.

But where are funding, politics, and national interests? They are mentioned either only briefly, if at all. It exists somewhere in the background, but is not treated as something actively shaping decisions.

But… this makes the story easy to follow. It also makes it unrealistic.

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How space business actually works

In real life, space business is done by people under immense pressure.

Stressing out about launch opportunities shifting, hardware being expensive, other delays, money running out, things being politically sensitive, etc.

Most decisions are made with very little room to choose. Often, there are not several good alternatives. Sometimes there are barely any alternatives at all. (Let’s not launch with a Falcon 9… sure, then, who do we launch with? :))

And when things go wrong, the consequences are rarely “dramatic” in the way outsiders imagine. Failure is often absorbed, explained away, or quietly forgotten, depending on who paid for the project and why it existed in the first place. Because “space is hard” narrative.

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Overselling and hype

The biggest disconnect comes from pretending that space is a normal market and normal industry.

It is not.

In terms of demand, my good friend said:

“On Earth, you tend to have thousands or millions of potential customers. For most space, even 100 is really pushing it; for some, even a dozen is really pushing it.”

In terms of offer, from the customers’ perspective, it is even worse:

• Some companies are cheaper because they are new and unproven.
• Some are cheaper because they are heavily supported by public money.
• Some are chosen because they fit a national or political story, not because they are the best option.

Grants and venture capital make some companies very visible very early. That visibility is often mistaken for readiness. Because flashy marketing, fancy booths, etc.

Optimism is often rewarded. Saying “we are not ready yet” rarely is.

Overselling is common. Not because everyone is lying, but because the system pushes people to promise progress, even when reality is slower (or quite different).

And customers often fall for the datasheet promises…

In this environment, price does not really mean cheap.
And datasheet numbers do not tell the full story on their own.

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Who actually makes decisions

A lot of educational material talks about defining the “ideal customer”, as if decisions are made by roles or categories…

They are not. They are made by real human beings with very real fears:

• One guy worries about technical risk.
• Another one worries about spending public money.
• And another one worries about how this decision will look to management, a ministry, or a board.

When space companies communicate, they often forget this and speak in abstract terms.

But the people on the other side are asking very simple questions:

• Will this make my life easier or harder?
• Who takes responsibility if this fails?
• How exposed am I if this goes wrong?
• Will I regret this decision later?

If your communication does not answer these questions, it will not work.

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The part no one likes to say out loud

Geopolitics is always part of the decision.

Supply chains, export controls, data ownership, and national influence over who can be chosen and who cannot, even when nobody says it explicitly. Sometimes this matters more than price or features.

Ignoring this does not make your message clearer. It just makes it incomplete.

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Why this matters

The problem with staying at a theoretical level is not that it is wrong.
It is that it creates false expectations for the newcomers in the newspace field.

Companies then wonder:

• Why their “perfectly clear” message does not convert.
• Why interest and demand do not turn into contracts.
• Why being cheaper or technically better is not enough.

Space business is messy, limited, and very human.

Understanding that does not make things easier. But it does make the communication more honest.
And honesty is usually what makes decisions possible.

After talking about the four pillars of human marketing, the next question always comes naturally: What does this look like once you leave the conference venue behind and go back to your daily work?

Because most progress in NewSpace does not come from campaigns or carefully timed announcements. It comes from human interactions. From moments where someone understands what you do. From conversations that continue after the event. From being remembered for the right reasons.

That is where visibility either starts working for you or quietly works against you.

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People do business with people

Even in a highly technical industry

NewSpace is full of complex systems, acronyms, and advanced engineering. But decisions are still made by humans. Engineers, founders, investors, program managers, and even politicians. All of them evaluate not only technology, but whether they understand you and whether working with you feels realistic.

Authentic presence matters more than corporate bling.
Relationships matter more than logos.
Your story makes the technology believable.

This is why human marketing works. Because people remember how you explained something. They remember whether you listened. They remember whether the interaction was pleasant or exhausting.

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If people do not understand, nothing else matters

Clarity is not simplification; it is respect

One of the biggest gaps in NewSpace communication is not intelligence. It is a translation.

• Engineers explain how it works.
• Customers want to know why it matters.
• Investors need to see impact (in numbers, of course :))

When language stays locked in jargon, it creates distance. When it becomes human, it creates engagement.

Clarity convinces vs. complexity confuses.

• If people cannot explain your work after talking to you, visibility will not help.
• If they cannot grasp the problem you solve, they will not move forward.

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Communication does not stop online

Every interaction is part of the brand

Marketing is often treated as something that lives on websites, LinkedIn posts, presentations and pitch decks. In reality, communication continues everywhere:

In emails, follow-ups, meetings and calls, at events.
In how you respond when something is unclear or delayed. Customer support is brand experience in action.

Human marketing recognises that reputation is shaped long before anyone checks your datasheets and numbers. How you show up consistently matters more than how you present yourself once.

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Ingenuity beats budget

Resourcefulness is creative thinking, not just ChatGPT

There is a persistent myth that good visibility requires money. In practice, it requires initiative.

Most teams already have access to platforms, tools, and knowledge. What is missing is often the willingness to experiment, adapt, and act without waiting for perfect conditions.

Resourcefulness grows when you think outside the box. So stop assuming there is only one standard option and way to do things.

Progress usually comes from consistency and creativity, not from budgets.

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Visibility without purpose becomes noise

Focus is what makes you memorable

Being visible everywhere is not the same as being relevant anywhere.

Human marketing is selective. It prioritises places, communities, and events with real interactions. It values contribution over promotion and quality over quantity.

Small, focused visibility often creates more impact than large, unfocused exposure. Especially in NewSpace, where niche communities and trusted networks matter more than size.

Relevance is not about trends. It is about being useful, understandable, and present where it actually matters.

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Reputation is built between the posts

Long before anyone calls it branding

Your reputation is not built by claims. It is built on accumulated behaviour.

• People remember whether you followed through.
• Whether you respected their time.
• Whether you handled uncertainty professionally.
• Whether working with you felt easy or difficult.

In NewSpace, names travel quickly. Often faster than content. Reputation arrives before you do, shaped by conversations you were not part of.

Human marketing protects that reputation by choosing reality and long-term credibility over short-term visibility and shiny ads.

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Teaching, helping, contributing

The most underestimated form of visibility

Many strong reputations in NewSpace were built not by selling, but by being there for others. Teaching clarifies your own thinking. Helping others strengthens credibility. Sharing experience positions you as someone worth listening to.

Volunteering, mentoring, speaking, writing, and educating do more than “give back”. They quietly build relevance and recognition that no campaign can ever buy.

Growth and contribution are not opposites. Together, they create a lasting presence.

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When visibility finally starts to matter

Human marketing changes how success is measured. Not by likes or impressions, but by conversations that continue, relationships that deepen, and opportunities that emerge because people remember you.

You do not need hype.
You need clarity, consistency, and intent.

When people understand what you do, they engage.
When they engage, they come back.
When they come back, real work begins.

An ORBITALYX framework for 2026

There is a version of marketing that looks great on paper. It is clean dashboards, weekly charts, and reports that prove you were “active”. It is optimising for impressions, chasing engagement, and treating attention as the finish line. And then there is the version that actually moves missions, partnerships, and businesses forward.

It is quieter. More human. Sometimes slower. It happens in real conversations, in follow-ups, in introductions, and in being remembered for the right reasons. It shows up when someone says, “I thought of you”, “Can we talk?”, “Can you help?”, “Let’s build this together.”

In NewSpace, especially in 2026, the gap between these two versions is growing. The industry is crowded. Everyone is posting. Everyone has a booth. Everyone has a slogan. And yet, what most teams truly need is not more noise.

They need clarity. They need trust. They need reputation.
They need marketing that behaves like a human, not like an algorithm. If your marketing is only producing numbers that never turn into conversations, opportunities, or business outcomes, you are not building momentum. You are feeding a machine.

Metrics are useful when they measure something real.
But if your marketing is only producing numbers that never turn into conversations, opportunities, or business outcomes, you are not building momentum. You are feeding a machine.

Human marketing asks different questions:

• Did this create a meaningful conversation?
• Did someone understand what we do?
• Did it lead to a meeting, a proposal, a partnership, a next step?
• Did it strengthen our reputation in the room that matters?

So here is a framework I keep coming back to.
Not as a checklist, and not as a motivational poster. More like a set of pillars you can lean on when things get messy. (Because things will get messy.)

And it takes resilience, resourcefulness, relevance, and reputation to do it well.

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1) Resilience

Resilience is not only the ability to survive delays, changing schedules, or silent months. It is the ability to keep going when someone tells you it is not possible.

In space, this happens more often than people admit. Someone questions your credibility because you are “too small”. Someone assumes you cannot deliver because you do not look like an established player. Someone dismisses your idea because it does not fit their mental model of how things should be done.

Resilience is what you do next.

Human marketing is not waiting until everything is perfect. It is not hiding until you have a flawless story. It is choosing to show up anyway, with integrity, and with the willingness to learn.

Resilience looks like this:

• You do not turn down opportunities because they feel intimidating
• You put in the work, even when the path is unclear
• You build as you go, improve through experience, and do not wait for external validation to move forward
• You try, you fail, you adjust, you try again
• You do not stop because someone else labelled it “impossible.”

Resilience is consistency that survives doubt.

It is also the quiet confidence of saying: I am not here to impress you. I am here to build.

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2) Resourcefulness

If resilience is the mindset, resourcefulness is the execution. In 2026, the excuse of “we do not have resources” is becoming less convincing, not because money does not matter, but because the toolbox is no longer locked behind budgets.

You can build visibility with what you already have.
You can build systems with accessible tools.
You can create quality without a giant team.

The difference is willingness. Resourcefulness is the decision to move forward with what exists.
It is a refusal to wait for ideal conditions. Human marketing is hands-on. It values capability and initiative. It is built by people who know how to make progress even when the budget is small.

Resourcefulness looks like this:

• You use tools to amplify work, not to replace thinking
• You reuse and repurpose content instead of constantly reinventing
• You simplify your message instead of adding more channels
• You ship drafts, learn fast, and improve continuously
• You focus on tangible outputs, not endless planning

Resourcefulness is not “doing more with less” as a slogan. It is doing what matters with what you have. And in NewSpace, that mindset often beats money.

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3) Relevance

Relevance is where human marketing becomes sharp. Because human marketing does not try to be everything for everyone. It tries to be understood by the right people. This is where many NewSpace brands lose themselves.

They start speaking in industry wallpaper language: broad, safe, full-service, end-to-end, global, scalable, revolutionary. It sounds impressive. It also says nothing. Relevance is the opposite of that.

It is knowing what you are actually good at, and having the courage to say it plainly.
It is helping people understand your value without making them decode your website.

Relevance also requires listening. Real listening. Not performative “we value feedback” language. Because markets evolve. Mission needs to shift. Procurement patterns change. The questions people ask today are not the same questions they asked two years ago.

Relevance looks like this:

• You focus on your strengths instead of inflating your scope
• You explain what you do in human language, not buzzwords
• You pay attention to the questions your audience keeps asking
• You adapt to market needs without chasing every trend
• You choose clarity over trying to sound big

Relevance is not a campaign. It is alignment with what people actually need.

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4) Reputation

Reputation is the pillar that makes everything else matter. Because in NewSpace, your name travels faster than your posts.

People remember:
how you communicate,
how you follow up,
how you behave when things get difficult,
and whether your delivery matches your words.

This is the part that metrics cannot measure, but the industry definitely feels. Reputation is built when nobody is watching. In the emails. In the timelines. In the way you treat people. In the way you handle uncertainty. Human marketing protects reputation because it does not treat attention as the highest value. It treats trust as the highest value.

Reputation looks like this:

• You make honest claims and set realistic expectations
• You respect other people’s time, budgets, and constraints
• You follow through, even when it is inconvenient
• You do not use hype as a substitute for delivery
• You understand that integrity is part of your brand

Reputation is not what you say about yourself. It is what others experience when working with you.

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What human marketing changes in 2026

Because in NewSpace, tangible results have always mattered more than applause.
The industry is built on coordination, trust, and long-term relationships.

Human marketing simply admits that.

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The Orbitalyx position

You can do marketing without pretending. You can be visible without exaggerating. You can build trust without having a huge budget. And you can do it while staying relevant, because relevance is not about trends; it is about being useful and understood.

The four pillars again

• Resilience to keep going when it is hard
• Resourcefulness to execute without waiting for perfect conditions
• Relevance to be understood by the right people
• Reputation to be trusted long after the post is gone

Space is for everyone willing to learn and build.
You can do it well. You can do it right. And you do not need permission to start.

ORBITALYX | Human marketing for NewSpace | Built on trust, relevance, and integrity

There is a strange paradox in the space sector. The biggest breakthroughs often happen in the smallest rooms. While mega trade shows pull the crowds, it is the niche, tightly curated conferences that quietly move the real technical conversation forward. These events prioritise expertise over square meters and attract people who arrive with purpose, curiosity, and real hands-on experience.

1. Winter Satellite Workshop, Espoo, Finland

https://spaceworkshop.fi
Winter Satellite Workshop is recognised as one of the strongest technical programs in Europe and shows how a small, focused conference can deliver exceptional depth. Sessions on remote sensing, Earth observation, mission operations, and payload design set a high academic and engineering standard. The atmosphere is direct and practical, with early morning discussions about calibration or sensor performance happening over coffee with the people who actually build and operate these systems.

2. SSSIF, Málaga, Spain

https://sssif.com
Small Satellites & Services International Forum in Málaga offers one of the highest networking densities in the smallsat ecosystem. Because the venue is compact and the attendee list curated, meaningful conversations happen naturally and frequently. Manufacturers, integrators, operators, and researchers meet in an environment designed for real exchange rather than wandering. The result is a boutique event where partnerships form quickly and where each discussion has genuine technical and commercial value.

3. SDSC, Tallinn, Estonia

https://sdsc.ee
Software Defined Space Conference in Tallinn reflects Estonia’s long-term commitment to cybersecurity and emerging technologies. The conference has a sharp scope, bringing together experts on space systems, security, software, and mission resilience. Estonia’s mindset of precision and digital innovation shapes the entire event. Attendees come to learn, share insights, and collaborate on concrete challenges rather than perform high-level presentations. SDSC is designed for people who value signal over noise and who want to deepen their understanding of secure space systems.

4. Czech Space Week, Czech Republic

https://www.czechspaceweek.com/
Czech Space Week shows how a small country can redefine its space industry through strategic coordination and strong institutional support. The national space strategy and the Czech Journey to Space program set a clear direction for future growth, while the upcoming Czech astronaut mission to the ISS demonstrates the ecosystem’s maturity. Home-developed experiments will fly to the ISS. National delegations visit Prague and Brno to explore partnerships with Czech companies. Government, academia, and industry participate actively, making this event a perfect example of how a boutique conference can elevate an entire national ecosystem.

5. The Reader’s Choice

The fifth boutique conference belongs to the reader. The space sector is full of small, focused events that play a vital role in shaping knowledge, building trust, and strengthening communities. If you know a niche conference where real conversations happen and where builders meet other builders, it deserves a place on this list. Share it, support it, and help it grow. These are the places where ideas move from discussion to implementation.

Big Trade Shows

Mega events like SmallSat in Utah, Satellite in Washington, and the Space Tech Expo Europe in Bremen remain essential. They gather the entire supply chain in one place, bring high visibility, and offer unmatched opportunities for business development. You meet manufacturers, investors, suppliers, operators, and institutions across every orbit and every segment. These shows help companies understand the global landscape, discover new technologies, and position themselves in front of thousands of potential partners. Big trade shows shape the market and define the momentum of the industry.

So what should you do?

Use niche events to sharpen your knowledge, make meaningful connections, and dive into the technical depth. Use large expos to expand your network, explore new opportunities, and strengthen your business pipeline. The smartest teams combine both formats to stay informed, visible, and competitive in a rapidly evolving sector.