Space and Satellite Futures: The Chief Saboteur Just Got Orbited

Orbited brings together the 2025 20 Under 35 cohort and the Space & Satellite Hall of Fame Class of 2026, where one industry legend takes the center and the next generation rotates through with questions designed to draw insight from experience. The clock is running. The buzzer is real. And every participant gets their moment in the orbit. In this debut session, Steve Hart, whose work over four decades helped shape military satellite security, IP-based commercial networking, and the ground network algorithms behind high-capacity satellite systems, faces off with a cohort that arrives with serious questions. They want to know about sunk costs and when to let go of good work. They ask about cybersecurity threats then and now, about navigating defense acquisition culture, about how you build a company that stays innovative when the billionaires move in. And they close with something bigger: whether multilateralism in space can survive a world that keeps pulling toward sovereignty and silos. Hart doesn't hedge. He talks about his time as what he calls "Chief Saboteur" and what it takes to break things on purpose when stagnation sets in. These conversations are part of SSPI's Space and Satellite Futures mission, cultivating and recognizing the talent that keeps our industry moving forward.