By 
The SATELLITE Conference and Exhibition recently concluded its 43rd annual event in downtown Washington DC from March 13-16. Drawing 14,768 attendees from 113 countries, the event reaffirmed its status as the premier gathering for the satellite and space industry. Moreover, it embraced the growing mainstream adoption of these technologies and welcomed diverse end-user communities.
RELATED: SATELLITE 2024 announces competitors for 8th Startup Space competition
SATELLITE 2024 boasted 450 exhibiting companies from over 30 countries, occupying 88,000 net square feet of exhibit space – a 24% year-over-year increase, marking the largest show floor in its 40+ year history.
Nigeria’s participation at the annual event was led by Mrs. Jane Egerton-Idehen, Managing Director of NIGCOMSAT Limited.
“SATELLITE 2024 hosted more attendees and exhibitors than any other year. In just three years after having to close our doors early due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we have broken our attendance record two years in a row,” said Lindsey Fuller, Senior Vice President of SATELLITE 2024. “The most exciting statistic for us was discovering that one-third of attendees were attending the event for the first time. Many of these first-time attendees were coming from industries outside of satellite and space technology, which speaks to the growth of our community.”
Highlights from the conference program included:
- Intelsat CEO Dave Wajsgras spoke during a fireside keynote on Monday, detailing the company’s pivot from being a media networks capacity provider to a full-scale, end-to-end solutions provider, and previewed a number of potential deals in the works including Medium-Earth Orbit (MEO), land mobility, and direct-to-handset.
- Glenn Latta, Managing Director of Inflight Entertainment and Connectivity at Delta Air Lines, and Paul Gaske, COO of Hughes, emphasized the indispensability of in-flight connectivity (IFC) for commercial airlines during their fireside chat preceding the Tuesday Opening General Session. They underscored that IFC must not only be available and scalable but also equipped with the latest technology to meet the escalating demand for seamless internet connections.
- Tuesday’s Opening General Session, sponsored by Thales Alenia Space, brought together satellite industry leaders in a lively discussion on global broadband connectivity, technology, and what’s next for legacy operators amid competition from Starlink. Gwynne Shotwell, president and COO of SpaceX, touched on several developments — including updates with Starlink, the recent John Deere deal, and Starship’s test flight — in addition to announcing SpaceX’s next frontier: plug and play lasers.
- During the Wednesday Opening General Session, sponsored by Maxar, executives from Comtech, Viasat, EchoStar, Iridium, Globalstar, and John Deere unpacked the practical challenges of the satellite and cellular convergence.
- MDA Space CEO Mike Greenley and 3GPP NTN Standards won the 2023 Satellite Executive and Technology of the Year awards, Via Satellite announced during the Awards Luncheon on Wednesday, March 20.
“SATELLITE 2024 featured its strongest-ever conference program offering to attendees, ” said Jeffrey Hill, Executive Chairman for SATELLITE 2024. “All-access pass-holders enjoyed access to more than 400 high-level speakers and nearly a dozen keynote presentations from industry thought leaders at U.S. Space Force, the NRO, Space Development Agency, Delta Airlines, John Deere, the ITU, the FCC, SpaceX, T-Mobile, Carnival Cruise Lines, and more.”
Highlights from the exhibition included:
- The 8th Annual Startup Space pitch competition put ten entrepreneurs on stage in front of a panel of judges for a chance to win access to private pitch meetings with a group of active space investors. This year’s winner, Trust Point, is developing a commercial next-generation Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) to provide performance, security, and reliability improvements for GPS users.
- The debut of the Via Satellite Theater brought a taste of conference content to the show floor. With nine sessions open to all attendees throughout the week, these presentations consistently attracted standing-room-only crowds. Topics covered included AI in Space, the Future Space Economy, Connectivity Needs for Air and Sea End Users, Direct-to-Device Connections, Earth Observation Data, and more.
- Attendees got an insider’s look at leading companies’ latest technology with live demos, presentations, and new product launches from SEAKR Engineering, Constellations Podcast by Kratos, ST Engineering iDirect, SpaceBridge, Keysight Technologies, Viasat, Kratos, Nanoavionics, Blue Canyon Technologies, Globalstar, SatixFy, Capgemini America, and Beyond Gravity.
SATELLITE 2025 will be held March 10-13, 2025, at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center located at 801 Mt Vernon Pl NW, Washington, D.C. 20001. For more information and to sign up for updates, visit www.SATShow.com.
