Rachel Jewett, senior managing editor at Via Satellite, and Jeff Hill, executive editor for Via Satellite and chairman of the SATELLITE Conference and Exhibition, are among the leading authorities on the growing space space/satellite market. Over the years both have been working at the publication, they’ve documented the explosive growth in the market and the technology that has fueled it.
On this episode of Gov & Beyond, Rachel and Jeff talk with hosts Luca Pagni and Joyson Cherian about those changes and how they cover the news in a market that refuses to stand still. They also talk about their podcast, conference, and the business and technology trends that are grabbing their attention these days.
Watching the Satellite Market Progress and Grow
In the interview, Jeff notes that he started his career at Via Satellite in 2008, when launching satellites into space was a relatively expensive proposition and only a handful of manufacturers and launchers were considered major players in the market. Rachel tells Luca and Joyson she joined the publication in 2019 just as companies like SpaceX, Starlink and OneWeb were solidifying their impact in space.
Rachel explains that Via Satellite covers industry contract announcements, regulatory updates, financial news from publicly traded companies, and new products – “really anything that would be relevant to people who work in the satellite industry.” She also manages the publication’s “On Orbit” podcast and its monthly magazine, which publishes more in-depth features.
Speaking to the astounding market changes he’s witnessed since 2008, Jeff recounts how the industry transitioned from one in which there were a limited number of customers in very specific markets to one that became the backbone for video streaming and data services. “That [trend] is still driving the market today,” he says, pointing to the highly-publicized Starlink/T-Mobile service deal that can push text messages anywhere via satellite.
Looking to the future, Rachel says satellites will be an essential component in the drive to connect all kinds of devices anywhere in the world, all the time. She predicts continuing military investment in satellite communications (SATCOM) for battlefield command and control systems and investment by agricultural companies like John Deere moving to put satellite terminals on equipment like tractors and harvesters. She also notes that SATCOM will be critical as driverless vehicles become more prevalent.
And of course, they’re closely watching Elon Musk. “SpaceX has a dominant position in the market, not just in satellite connectivity, but launching,” Jeff says. “…And with [Musk’s] current role influencing spending policy for the U.S. government, we’re going to see whether or not that’s sustainable as other companies are surely preparing some sort of legal action to protect their interests.”
Listeners will note that Rachel and Jeff are highly in sync on the topics they cover, but they aren’t in complete agreement on other things. For one thing, Jeff says he would be happy never to hear the song “The Gambler” by Kenny Rogers ever again – a tune that Rachel very much enjoys (just don’t play “YMCA” when she’s around; she’s hated it since she was a child).
To hear more from Rachel and Jeff on their views on the satellite market as well as their publications and events, listen to the full podcast below or read the transcript.
Timestamps:
0:43 – Rachel and Jeff’s careers covering the space and satellite industry
5:20 – The explosive growth of the industry and its future
11:48 – Driverless cars, Elon Musk and travelling to Mars – topics Rachel and Jeff are keen on covering
15:40 – The “On Orbit” podcast
16:42 – What to expect at the 2025 SATELLITE Conference
23:17 – Via Satellite movie faves – the “Hairspray” movie musical, Stanley Kubrick and Olivia Coleman
25:57 – What Rachel and Jeff can live without: bacon on everything and “YMCA,” and a split decision on Kenny Rogers’ “The Gambler”
29:40 – Best ways to connect with Rachel and Jeff
Transcript:
Luca Pagni (LP): Welcome to Gov & Beyond. I’m your host, Luca Pagni, here with my co-host Joyson Cherian. This podcast features conversations with the newsmakers and influencers at the center of today’s public sector news cycle. From our studio at W2 Communications, let’s go Gov & Beyond.
Welcome everyone to Gov & Beyond. I’m your host, Luca Pagni, here with my co-host, Joyson Cherian. We’re excited to be joined today by Rachel Jewett, senior managing editor at Via Satellite, and her colleague Jeff Hill, executive editor for Via Satellite, and chairman of the SATELLITE Conference and Exhibition. Welcome to the show!
Jeff Hill (JH): Thanks so much for having us.
Rachel Jewett (RJ): Yeah, thanks, Luca and Joyson. Excited to be here.
LP: Great. And you know Jeff, Rachel, we know that you’ve both been at the forefront of the space and satellite industry for quite a while now. Could you both start off by telling us just a bit more about your background, your careers and respective roles at Via Satellite.
JH: Sure. Do you want me to start since…
RJ: Yeah, go for it, Jeff.
JH: …my story is a little longer than Rachel’s. I’m a bit older. So I jumped into the industry in 2008 and I came from the city planning and smart urban architecture world, which is kind of strange, but we did, I did know about, like, satellite imagery tools that were being developed that could help in in city planning at the time. So I wasn’t completely unfamiliar with satellite or space. The other thing too is growing up, my dad had a satellite dish, one of those, like old, really big ones in our backyard, so we could watch baseball games that weren’t broadcast on local television. So that, that was my what I knew about space coming in and at the time, in the late 2000s having a satellite in space was still pretty expensive, and there, there were only a handful of manufacturers and launchers, and it was expensive to get up in space. And when I came in, that was around the time when SpaceX was testing out Falcon 1, which is their rocket before Falcon 9, and they were promising to cut launch costs, not just in half, but like it would cost one-tenth of the cost of a traditional launch vehicle. And that was a big deal to lower the cost of space. So I was a news reporter at this time, and, it was great because no one else was covering space at that time, like nobody there was I could probably like five other reporters that were just dedicated to, like space business at that time. And I was a news editor for a while, and then about a few years later, like in 2012 I started working more on the SATELLITE conference, because the chair of the show, my predecessor, Scott Chase, was retiring. And I took over his role as chair of the show, and have been doing that ever since. And then I met, I met Rachel about five and a half years ago, and that’s where her story starts. I’ll turn over to her.
RJ: Yeah, thanks, Jeff. And I, I just hit my five years at Via Satellite in December, so I’ve been thinking about that. And when I started at Via Satellite, there were just, like, a couple of Starlink satellites in orbit. SpaceX had just started, I think that the first, like, full scale launch was in January, around January of 2020. So I really started, like, right as these, you know, SpaceX, Starlink and OneWeb started launching and these constellations, which have changed the landscape of the industry so much in the past five years. So I started like, right as those changes were starting to take off, and before this, for any listeners that are in the DC area, people might remember the Washington Post Express, the commuter paper that was passed out on the metro. Yeah. So I worked at Express for a number of years, super fun, awesome publication, and I was there when it got shut down, and then I ended up at Via Satellite. And so I really didn’t have, like, a tech or satellite background, and that was one of the things that I loved about this job, was that it gave me the chance to, like, really dig in and become an expert in an area and really learn a market. So I’ve loved that. And as senior managing editor, I do a little bit of everything. I write and report on the industry news for our website and our daily news email. So I’m covering everything from industry contract announcements, regulatory updates, financial stuff from publicly traded companies, new products, really anything that would be relevant to people that work in the satellite industry. And then I also, I manage our monthly magazine where we have more in depth features, and I host the On Orbit podcast, also.
Joyson Cherian (JC): Obviously, over the last few years, the space and satellite industry has seen rampant growth. Have you seen the market grow and where do you think it will go in the future? Jeff, we’ll start with you.
JH: Sure. Well, as I mentioned, when I first got into the industry, it was very expensive to get a satellite in space, so there were a very limited number of customers in very specific markets that were buying satellites. Mostly it was broadcast, the broadcast television industry. They would purchase a satellite from one of the manufacturers, buy out all the transponders for global broadcast TV, like news gathering, live events, sports, that sort of thing. And then that it was going through, kind of like a business ramp up, and then very quick ramp down. After that, the ramp up was, you know, when all of those networks started broadcasting in HD, they had to change all of their like network infrastructure. But then television started becoming streaming. So then satellite was sort of transitioning to like an internet service, like a data service. And, you know, there were a handful of what we called the mobile satellite operators like Iridium, Inmarsat, who were doing this kind of voice video data service to areas where you can’t connect to fiber, like on the ocean, in the air. And you know, Iridium had this constellation that was in low Earth orbit that had reduced latency compared to geostationary satellite. So we’re doing broadcasting, and so it was thought that, you know, if you can reduce latency, you could provide high-speed broadband over satellite. And you know that belief is still driving the market today. I mean, we just saw in the Super Bowl, right, like the Starlink, T-Mobile Service deal where they can, they can push text messages anywhere over satellite. I mean, text messages are very low bandwidth kind of application, but it’s still like you can, you could send little bits of data anywhere. We are also seeing today satellites connecting directly to handsets. That’s one example, but you know, you’re seeing like voice service, even internet service. I mean, satellite has been providing backhaul service for a while. But you know, this is a multi-billion dollar market connecting remote, rural end users, businesses, governments. And in addition to that, you know, the the imagery and sensing applications, Rachel will probably talk about a lot about smart agriculture, which she’s been covering a lot in Via Satellite. But I mean, the applications have grown. It’s become more diverse as satellite moved away from broadcast centric business models. So Rachel, you want to take it from there?
RJ: Yeah, I was, I was going to mention the the Super Bowl ad also, and just how you were saying that satellite is it’s becoming more widespread. There’s wider knowledge among the general public of satellite, and like you said, it’s just going to connect more and more things. So as the demand for bandwidth is just growing, people just want more data all the time. You need satellite in areas where there aren’t terrestrial networks, cellular networks. So I think in the future, we just move closer to that concept of, like, everything being connected everywhere, all the time. And the satellite industry, I think, has to be more closely integrated with terrestrial networks to make that happen. And in that, I see satellite extending the reach of networks for you know, enterprises want to be, they want to be connected at the edge. They want to have greater resiliency for their communications – You need satellite to do that. Our phones are now connecting to satellite that’s only going to grow in capability. The military investing in satellite communications and the concept of Joint All-Demand, Command and Control, JADC2, that’s like connecting sensors across the different branches. You know, there’s a role for satellite there. And like Jeff mentioned, agriculture, I’ve covered the connected agriculture space a little bit. John Deere is moving right now to put satellite terminals on agriculture equipment like tractors, harvesters, because they want to do more intense data than they’re able to do right now with the cellular networks that exist out and you know, some of it’s in rural parts of the US, but some of it is in Brazil, where they don’t have the same level of of cellular coverage. So that’s a really interesting market for me, for how satellite will expand in the future. Then I’m also starting to get interested in cars, like the driverless car of the future. The driverless car might be in a national park, and if the cars are, you know, if the cars are communicating with each other, sharing data, navigating to make sure they don’t crash and stuff, what happens when they’re out of the network range? You need satellite connectivity. So that’s something I’m starting to pay more attention to. Yeah, so those are some ways that I see satellite growing. There’s also this whole idea in space of the future space economy, and when we’re actually, like, you know, doing business in space, whether that’s it could be manufacturing, it could be pharmaceutical research. And some of this is happening right now, but a lot of it is still being figured out and still being developed today.
JC: It’s interesting how you highlighted in the first point, the evolution of what’s happening. You know, years ago, tech companies would always talk about the concept of always on with the goal of always on, always being available when necessary. It seems as though we’ve moved away from that being a goal to that being a requirement, and satellite is enabling that requirement.
RJ: Yeah, absolutely.
LP: So Rachel, I know that you just mentioned that driverless cars is an area that you’d like to focus in on more in the future. I’d be curious to hear from you and Jeff, what topics and trends are currently piquing your interest the most. And are there any topics that you’d like to cover more of in the future?
RJ: Yeah, the I would say I don’t have a driverless car article right now. I’ve written a little bit about some of the side things around that market, but, yeah, that’s something I hope to dig into a little more this year. And like I said, um, connected to agriculture, is something that I’m very interested in. Also the direct to device and the cell services. Actually, I have a story just today about T-Mobile and how they’re rolling out their service with SpaceX. So that’s a market that I cover pretty closely. I had a feature story in our magazine, our January/February magazine about that. And then I would also say for this year, the, you know, the new administration, the administration change. That’s a big topic of focus, of how the Trump administration is going to change, whether that’s the procurement landscape for satellite operator. Influence of Elon Musk, who is, you know, already a super powerful post person in the space industry, and now he’s a really powerful person in the government. So I think have to mention the the political environment as an area of coverage.
JH: Yeah, and just to jump off, what Rachel said, I think, I think that’s the, probably the biggest story right now, and probably will be this year, is that, as she mentioned, SpaceX has a dominant position in the market, not just in satellite connectivity, but launching. And they’re also in-house manufacturing. They also have billions of dollars worth of business with the US government and with other governments. And then you have, like, Elon Musk’s interests in his other business that are spread around the world. And with his current role influencing, you know, spending policy for the US government, we’re going to see whether or not that’s sustainable, as other companies are surely preparing some sort of legal action to protect their interests. And you know, we’re going to see, the satellite competitors to Starlink are in a precarious position, because they also rely on SpaceX to launch their satellites. So there’s going to be a lot of talk and coverage on just how far this role of his can go before he starts running into conflicts of interest. And then I think the second story is also policy related, where as the US and space faring nations around the world start developing more space programs activities, invest more in lunar operations, or going to Mars, or developing, as Rachel described, the future space economy, I think we’re going to have to see updates to global space treaties. I think we’re going to have to see framework, legal frameworks, for business activity in space. You know, it is right now, like the Wild West, and there’s very little guidance from global governments. And then there’s the geopolitical environment where you have China and Russia and the United States, they’re not necessarily sharing right now. They’re not interested in collaborating on these very important issues. So we’ll see what happens. But that’s top of mind for I think a lot of people in this industry.
LP: Definitely. Yeah, I couldn’t agree more that it’ll be interesting to see how things continue to unfold with Elon and Starlink overall. But then, yeah, that’s a fantastic point about treaties and the way that other countries will begin to, you know, collaborate on space. But then, Rachel, a little bit earlier, you mentioned that you actually host your own podcast as well. Could you tell our listeners a bit more about the On Orbit podcast and the type of topics and guests that you look to host?
RJ: I do, yeah! Jeff actually started the podcast a number of years ago. Jeff, did it start in 2019?
JH: Yeah, it was right, right when you started, I think was when we, we started the podcast. Yeah.
RJ: Okay, yeah, so it’s a fairly long running podcast, which is awesome. And my focus right now, I’m trying to differentiate it from, like, the news heavy stuff on the website. And so some of the things I’m focusing on are really compelling, real life use cases of satellite technology, something that someone that’s outside of the industry could listen to and be like, okay, I see how this can impact my life. And so I’ve interviewed a couple of companies that one I thought was really interesting, like Hubble Network is trying to do Bluetooth from space, and it’s like, really a consumer application is what they’re leading with. So that’s an example there. I’ve also done, like animal tracking, and had the Smithsonian on the podcast. That was a very cool one. Or, you know, digging into the issue of something so not just like this is what this company is doing, but what’s the issue behind this? And kind of giving people a more fleshed out explanation of the issues driving, what the issues that are driving the news.
LP: That’s awesome.
JC: So obviously, the 2025 SATELLITE Conference is coming up soon. How have you both seen the conference evolve over the years? And what are the things that you’ll be interested in in this year’s show?
JH: Well, I can say that over the last few years, I mean all events, were dealing with COVID, and right before we got into COVID, where it impacted a couple of years of the event. I mean, we were seeing lots of growth from that was driven by startups and new entrants into the industry. They were mostly on the space access side at first, but then we started to see, like, you know, more focus on satellite companies, more focus on new satellite companies. And so, like, the number of you know, potential operators doubled, the number of potential manufacturers doubled, the number of potential launchers doubled. And a lot of these new companies were like just making the transition from series A to Series B funding, and then COVID hit. And then to continue getting the funding, a lot of these companies either, you know, went public through a SPAC, which if, you are familiar with Rachel’s coverage, when she first started, she was focusing a lot on these SPAC companies like Rocket Lab, Inspire, BlackSky, or they folded into other companies, or they were bought out. So for two years, you know, we saw like kind of a, that’s how COVID impacted the show we were growing, and then we kind of froze for a couple of years when no one was going to events. But what was pretty interesting was when we got back from COVID, we had almost immediate recovery, like we within two years, we were back to where we were before COVID. And what’s really changed now is that satellite, the satellite and space industry, is a lot less of a like, it’s still like, it’s still a largely B2B market, like, it’s still, you know, we’re selling to businesses or the US. Government. But I mean, those the types of businesses now are a lot more varied and even lot closer to the consumer. There are a lot fewer like resellers now than there were before, and there’s a higher general public interest in space and satellite. So like we’re seeing now, I think every year, this number is growing, but like this year, we’re like a 40%, 45% of our attendees are first time or new attendees, like every year. So it’s just really interesting that we’re seeing people come to learn about the industry, learn about satellites, learn about what they can do for their businesses or institutions, or, you know, for the communities. And, you know, it’s a lot less, direct to one market, or like, you know, we have, you know, people come to, I mean, people do still come to, like, you know, hand out subcontracts for components, and that’s, that’s a good deal of the activity on our show floor. But a lot of people are it our show is becoming educational, more educational in nature.
LP: Yeah, it’s definitely, I know I’ve had the opportunity to attend the show the last two, three years. I think this will be my either third or fourth upcoming and, yeah, it just continues to get bigger. And it’s, you definitely get some really great conversations at the event.
JH: Rachel, I’m curious to know what you think, because you cover the show as a journalist, and so like, while I’m running around making sure, like, you know, like, production is on time, and that, like, you know, tours are starting on time, you’re actually, like, getting to experience the show.
RJ: Yes, that’s a tough question for me. I mean, I think that, just like you said that there, the show is becoming more varied that this past year, the one of the keynotes was John Deere, and that’s like so wild that you have an agriculture company deliver a main keynote at a satellite show. So it’s, you know, hearing from markets like that that are not it’s not the industry talking to itself. It’s hearing from the end user markets that’s always really interesting to me. And Luca, like you said, it’s just the show getting bigger that I’m in charge of. We do a show daily for Via Satellite, which is kind of old school, but we still do it. And you know, I’ve got freelancers out across the show picking up on, you know, “what’s the top news of the day?,” and it gets harder every year to say, what are, you know, we’ve got these limited resources. We’ve got, you know, so much space in print. What are going to be the most important things to cover? So it gets tougher every year. And I love to see big announcements at the show like last year, Intelsat announced that they were doing a deal for Eutelsat, OneWeb low Earth orbit capacity. And that was, you know, I love it when companies come out with their big announcements the week of the show.
LP: Yeah, and the daily roundup that you were talking about is definitely super helpful, because, as we were saying, it is a very big show. Sometimes it is a little hard to stay on top of all those announcements, because you might be on one half of the building talking to some companies, and you hear their news, but then afterwards you check the news, you’re like, “oh crap, I missed that one.” So I know, I’ve always found those helpful. But kind of switching gears a bit, want to, you know, get to know both of you a little bit more outside of the newsroom, and have a little bit of a interesting question, in the sense of, I’d be curious to know, do either of you have a frequently watched movie that no matter what you’re doing, you will stop what it is and proceed to go watch that movie?
JH: You can go first. Rachel.
RJ: Okay, I would say one of my favorite movies is the Hairspray musical from like 2004. If I see it on TV, it brings me joy, and I will just, like I’ve probably seen that movie more than anything else. It’s just, it’s so fun. It’s full of life. It’s joyful, kind of silly, but I love it so much.
JH: For me, anything Stanley Kubrick, in fact, like two months ago I was, it was, like, on a weekend, and I saw like, Barry Lyndon popped up on like, HBO or something like that. And that’s like a three-and-a-half-hour movie, and I dropped everything I was doing and just watched the rest, because I’m a huge fan of Kubrick. But I’m like, one of those weirdos that thinks like Barry Lyndon is like a comedy and so I really enjoyed that. Let’s see like movies, I’ll just stop what I’m doing. I really love David Fincher just came out with a movie called The Killer, which is based on Le Samouraï, which is like a Melville film from like the 60s and that was really, that’s really cool. I’ve seen that on TV, or, like, going through HBO and, like, I’ll pick that up and watch it. Those are the two on my mind right now anything with Olivia Coleman too. I love her. She’s great.
JC: Olivia Coleman’s great in nearly everything she’s in, so.
JH: Absolutely, I wish she really were the queen. She plays the queen a lot, and I really wish she were the queen.
JC: One of the things that Luca and I have learned as hosting the podcast is when you ask people what they like, they’ll tell you what they like, but if you ask them what they don’t like, they’re passionate about what they don’t like. So we’d love to hear from you. You know, what’s a dish or food ingredient that you hate?
RJ: Okay, I’ve got kind of a hot take for this one, and I don’t hate it, but I think that bacon is widely overused. I will enjoy a strip of bacon with breakfast, but I don’t really want bacon in other foods. I do not want bacon bits on my salad. I don’t want bacon on my chicken sandwich or my cheeseburger. I feel like it was like a like, a trendy thing in food for a while, that everything would have bacon on it, and it’s not for me.
JH: I can’t do olives or mayonnaise.
RJ: Oh, no mayonnaise?
JH: No, I don’t eat meat or dairy, but like just the smell of olives and mayonnaise, even vegan mayonnaise. I just, I don’t know, it’s just not for me.
RJ: So no dirty martinis for you, Jeff?
JH: No.
JC: Rachel took my line.
RJ: Sorry.
LP: I was gonna say that. So I’m gonna assume the offices never have BLTs then, because that’s kind of what I think would be the ultimate no go for both of you.
JH: Yeah.
RJ: Yeah.
JH: I could probably share it. We probably share that sentiment.
LP: So then kind of pulling on what Joyson was saying about, you know, getting a little more passion of things that you just might not like. What is one song that if you never had to hear it again, you would throw a party for it.
JH: I’ll go first this time. I’m a music guy, so I could talk about this for a really long time, but the song I never want to hear again is The Gambler from Kenny Rogers, and the reason why is people sing it and when they want to, like, you know, say, “Oh, we’re rugged,” or “we’re having a great time gambling,” or, like, “I’m a great card player.” Everyone’s a great poker player these days, but the song is about some drunk guy who approaches Kenny Rogers on a train, asks for a cigarette and then gives them unsolicited life advice. So like, I don’t I like I don’t know that song. I just I, if I never hear it again, I would be happy.
RJ: That’s funny. I’m gonna say YMCA by The Village People. I remember being a child and not liking that song for some reason. It just, I’ve never liked it. I think it’s super corny, and I’d be fine if I never heard it again.
JH: Yeah, it’s a wedding song.
RJ: It was not played at my wedding.
JH: That’s good.
RJ: I put that on the do not play list.
LP: That one is definitely a universal wedding song, I feel like.
JH: Rachel, I saw your face when, when I said The Gambler by Kenny Rogers. Do you like that song? You love that song?
RJ: I do, I like it, yeah.
JH: Oh boy. Well, can’t win them all, I guess.
RJ: Yeah, I like cheesy old country music.
JH: No, see, I like, I like old country music. I just don’t like that song.
RJ: Yeah, yeah, that’s fair.
LP: Well, Jeff, Rachel, thank you both so much for your time today. If any of our listeners wanted to learn more about you and the work that you’re both doing at Via Satellite, what would be the best way to reach you?
RJ: Yeah, I’ll give a quick plug. First of all, if anybody’s listening and they want to subscribe, and they’re not subscribed, it’s on our home page. We’ve got a button there, and Via Satellite is a free publication. So I would you know, please subscribe to us, like, stay up on what’s going on in the industry. So subscribe, feel free to email me. My email is rjewett@accessintel.com, or reach out on LinkedIn. I’ll also say that my other fellow editor, Mark Holmes, were hosting a happy hour during SATELLITE in the Via Satellite booth on I think it’s on Wednesday, at 4pm so we’d love it if people would come out, stop by, say hi, have a quick chat there.
JH: And for the SATELLITE show, you can visit our website at satshow.com that’s S, A, T, S, H, O, W.com, and that’s for both SATELLITE 2025 and our GovMilSpace event, which is our program for government, military attendees and conference sessions. And so also has its dedicated its own dedicated exhibit hall space and Keynote program, which is really exciting this year. I mean, kicking off with a keynote from the director of the NGA, Vice Admiral Frank Whitworth. You don’t really get to hear from the directors of those intelligence agencies very often, so that’ll be interesting to see. And then, you know, you can see all 275, plus speakers that we have at our website.
LP: Perfect. So it sounds like you gotta go to the NGA keynote in the morning and then to the after party later that day.
RJ: Yes, definitely,
JH: Absolutely.
LP: Perfect. Well, thank you to everyone who tuned into this episode, and thank you again, Rachel and Jeff for helping us go Gov & Beyond.
Outro: Thank you for joining us on today’s episode of Gov & Beyond. To learn more about our podcast and hear all of our episodes, please visit us at W2Comm.com/govandbeyond and make sure to follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter @Gov&Beyond. You can also subscribe anywhere podcasts are found.