Author: Harini Madhusudan

On 7 October 2023, the Palestinian terror group Hamas led a series of surprise attacks on Israel. The attacks were a carefully coordinated effort originating from the Gaza Strip through land, air, and sea. The scale of the attacks included unprecedented tactics and a four-part operation that began with the barrage of 3,000 rockets fired from Gaza with the simultaneous incursions over the borders by terrorists, after which they are said to have stormed the cement walls and fortified electric systems at Israel’s border, popularly called the ‘iron-wall,’ or ‘smart fence.’ After securing the terrain, they infiltrated the Israeli territory,…

On 1 August 2023, the US Court of Appeals ruled that the Antrix Corporation “enjoyed immunity under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act.” The ruling essentially reversed the confirmation provided in November 2020, by the District Court of Seattle, in exercising personal jurisdiction over Antrix when they had claimed immunity under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act 1976. With this new ruling, all of the Devas’ shareholders’ attempts to claim compensation or rewards under various US jurisdictions were nullified. Devas Multimedia had pursued the case, trying to enforce the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) arbitration against Antrix in the US, France, the…

On 21 June 2023, India signed the Artemis Accords as its 27th signatory state. India would join the US attempt to land humans on the moon by 2025. Additionally, the Indian private sector will likely work with the Artemis missions, including the Lunar Gateway, establishing a permanent lunar base, and the Mars landing. At the news conference in the White House, Prime Minister Modi said, “By taking the decision to join the Artemis Accords, we have taken a big leap forward in our space cooperation.” The Artemis Accords is a set of practical principles to guide cooperation and space exploration…

On April 2, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, carrying ten military satellites – two of which were built by SpaceX – lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. This marks the first military communications and missile tracking constellation launch, ideated by the US Space Development Agency. The launch was Tranche 0 with the first 10 of the 28 missile tracking and data-transport satellites of the Space Development Agency’s proliferated low-Earth orbit constellation.  The satellites have been placed 1,000 kilometres above Earth into two orbital planes. While commercial constellations/ mega-constellations have been known to be adaptive to the military…

In the early weeks of the war in Ukraine, Starlink – SpaceX’s satellite internet service company – provided Kiev access to thousands of its satellites as dual-use internet service with speeds of up to 150 mbps. This marked the first ever use of satellites and services of the private space industry, deliberately or otherwise, in terrestrial armed conflict. Starlink’s services were initially intended as a countermeasure to the attacks on Ukraine’s electrical and communications infrastructure. In December 2022, SpaceX announced that it would send Ukraine about 10,000 more terminals, adding to the 22,000 delivered since the beginning of the war.…