A couple of crossings were powered by alternative propulsion in 2015: the Pacific by solar and the English Channel by electric. But the big news was some approaching operational debuts from CFM and Pratt&Whitney.

Through partnerships and investments, defense primes and OEMs are increasingly turning the page away from the old playbook of acquiring and subsuming new technology.

Spacecraft propulsion systems for communications satellites serve a unique purpose—to produce carefully measured pulses that help spacecraft achieve their final trajectory and orbital positions, and to maintain those positions once reached.

Robotic spacecraft traveled throughout the Solar System in 2015 and gave planetary scientists different perspectives on objects ranging from microscopic dust particles at its outer reaches, to the gas giant Jupiter, to the hot clouds of Venus.

Today, small satellites must hitch a ride into orbit, but an array of small-payload vehicles are under development that promise low-cost, quick-response launches of spacecraft as slight as cubesat size.

France’s defense ministry will begin work on three new major space-system developments in the coming year, including an international collaboration with Germany in the area of remote sensing and an operational follow-on to the Elisa signals-intelligence demo.

2015 could well turn up in the history books as the year humankind finally realized it could be a spacefairing species, and started reaping the benefits.

Space was an exciting frontier in 2015, with New Horizons’ Pluto flyby and the confirmation of water on Mars’s surface dominating the news. But commercial competition in space was also an important trend.