When dreams turn to infrastructure, who controls the future above us?
In 1957, a lonely beep from space sparked a boy’s dream to build rockets and reach for the stars.
Today, the sky above us is buzzing with thousands of satellites - mostly owned by private companies, controlled by a handful of powerful players, and watched over by governments that now depend on them more than ever.
But what does it mean when the line between public power and private control blurs?
Who really owns the sky - and what happens when that control slips beyond the hands of elected leaders?
Back in 1957, Homer Hickam was just a kid in a small West Virginia coal town when Sputnik, the world’s first satellite, whispered a call to dream bigger. That faint beep pulled him away from the coal mines and toward NASA’s launchpads. Space was then a frontier full of wonder and possibility.
Homer was born in 1943, raised with coal mines all around and a Dad who ran one.
When Sputnik launched on October 4, 1957, Homer was just 14, but he saw a future that others didn’t. While most people saw competition or danger, Homer saw possibility. Along with his friends - the Rocket Boys - he started building homemade rockets, learning physics the hard way: with trial, error, and a few explosions. His Dad didn’t get it...he wanted Homer to follow the mining path. But Homer’s rockets started winning science fairs, got him a scholarship, and eventually landed him a job at NASA.
Fast forward to 2025, and the sky isn’t that wild frontier anymore. It’s packed with over 9,000 satellites, but instead of exploring, they’re mostly about control and connection. Take Starlink’s 6,000+ satellites, for example: they’re beaming internet into places no one ever thought possible: deserts, war zones, the middle of the ocean. Even Dusty Gulch....
Then there’s the surveillance satellites snapping photos, intercepting signals, turning the sky into a giant, unblinking eye. GPS satellites guide our phones, banks, and even missiles. Satellites track the climate, crops, resources, but often it’s strategy behind the scenes, not just science. Research satellites? They’re now a small slice of the space pie, dwarfed by commercial and military needs.
When Power Leaves the Launchpad
How has this shift changed the balance of power?
Does the U.S. President still hold control when military communications and critical launches depend on one private company? What happens if that company - or that one person - makes decisions that don’t align with national priorities?
Can national security be guaranteed when it’s tethered to private hands?
Homer’s story feels like a different world. Sputnik’s lonely beep has become a vast digital mesh wrapped around the Earth. The real question now isn’t how many satellites we have...it’s who owns them, who controls them, and what happens when something fails.
In August 2020, SpaceX quietly splashed down a capsule in the Gulf of Mexico with two American astronauts aboard. No big NASA spectacle, no military parade, just a private company doing what it promised. Then in March 2025, when Boeing’s Starliner left astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore stranded on the International Space Station for nine months, SpaceX came through again. Musk’s Crew Dragon brought them home - not for glory, but simply because they could and it was the right thing to do.
Musk’s rockets, ships, and satellites have become the backbone of space access and connectivity. From warzone’s front lines to remote communities, his tech is indispensable. The U.S. government, despite its budget and tradition, now leans on one man. The world noticed.
From a boy’s dream in 1957 to a sky bursting with satellites in 2025, things have changed. Musk, like Homer, saw stars full of promise. But where Homer’s rockets inspired hope, Musk’s space empire has somehow assumed control. The sky’s purpose has shifted, and so should our awareness. Who runs those orbits above us? And what happens when we can’t just switch them off? Or if they are switched off?
Across the Tasman, a new player has quietly entered the equation. On New Zealand’s remote Māhia Peninsula, Rocket Lab operates Launch Complex 1...a small but strategic foothold in the modern space race.
Its flexible, frequent launches offer U.S. and allied intelligence agencies a southern hemisphere platform for reconnaissance, surveillance, and replacement missions. It’s not Pine Gap, but it’s a sign of something bigger: the shift from centralised government control to agile, commercial capability.
“Space is now open for business in ways that were unimaginable even a decade ago. We’re not just launching rockets - we’re giving governments and companies rapid, flexible access to orbit when and where they need it.”
— Peter Beck, CEO of Rocket Lab
Q&A: Who Owns the Sky?
Q: How much of the global satellite infrastructure is in private hands, and whose?
A: More than ever before, the answer is: Elon Musk. Through SpaceX, he controls between 60% and 90% of all satellite mass launched. Starlink alone holds over 6,000 satellites, making up the bulk of low-Earth orbit connectivity for internet, surveillance, and military use.
Q: What about Rocket Lab?
A: Rocket Lab holds around 15% of the small-satellite market and is the second most active U.S. launch provider. Its Māhia base is especially valuable for rapid-turnaround missions that can’t wait behind SpaceX’s launch queue.
Q: Does this concentration matter?
A: It might. When one company owns the majority of military-grade orbiting hardware, and another fills strategic gaps, governments become reliant. At what point does public command give way to private permission?
Pine Gap and a Changing Alliance
That brings us to Pine Gap.
This joint U.S.-Australian base has been a core part of intelligence gathering for decades. But with satellites increasingly run by commercial networks, and geopolitical tensions rising between Canberra, Washington, and Beijing, what future does Pine Gap have?
Could it be mothballed? Replaced? Forgotten? What would that mean for Australia’s strategic voice?
Do we even matter anymore?
What risks and opportunities emerge from this tangled new space order? Could Australia safeguard its strategic future by investing in independent space and cyber capabilities, or is it destined to drift between superpowers? How do we weigh economic realities against security concerns when private companies dominate once government-only domains?
Who’s Really in Command?
Is the President of the United States still the ultimate authority on space, security, and surveillance, if the systems that underpin all three are controlled by private individuals?
When Musk launches spy satellites, beams comms into warzones, and rescues astronauts before NASA can react… when Beck delivers rapid-response launches for U.S. intelligence from New Zealand… who, exactly, is calling the shots?
If the President must go through a CEO to access orbital infrastructure, and that CEO also advises government while winning billions in defense contracts, where does command end and influence begin?
What About the Space Force?
The U.S. Space Force, created in 2019, was supposed to secure America’s interests in space. But here’s the tension:
Much of what it depends on, launch vehicles, satellites, tracking, data, belongs to private players.
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Coordinator or Commander?
Is the Space Force truly leading space operations, or just managing contracts? -
Guarding What It Doesn’t Own?
Can it defend Starlink if it doesn’t control it? What if those systems are hacked or shut off? -
Doctrine or Dependency?
Can it write military doctrine when the battlefield is leased from billionaires?
The irony is stark: the U.S. built a military branch to secure space… only to rely on entrepreneurs who answer to shareholders, not generals.
The irony is stark: the U.S. built a military branch to secure space… only to rely on entrepreneurs who answer to shareholders, not generals.
The answers aren’t simple. But as the sky changes, so must our awareness.
Who truly holds power above us?
The sky isn’t just a place to dream anymore...
…it’s the ground on which our future will be fought.
We used to say “the sky’s the limit” as if space promised freedom, wonder, and limitless innovation. But maybe the sky is the limit now...a crowded, contested space shaped not by astronauts, but by contracts, control, and corporate empires.
So we’re left with questions: Who owns the sky? Who decides what flies? And what falls? And if power is drifting silently overhead...what must we reclaim here on the ground?
Well, that’s my thoughts for the day. And all because I watched a film called October Sky.
