Ambitions are great, but it’s also important to be and remain realistic. Especially with the agile and modular approach and the as a Service methodology, this is very much possible. It’s both good and necessary to start small and to grow in an evolutionary way. At the same time it’s important to have multiple dots on the horizon – in our context: dots in space. Space is large enough for multiple dots and also large enough for multiple parallel roads to those dots. Moreover, there is more than enough space to deviate from such roads, split and merge roads, try multiple roads at the same time and allow for dead ends. Agility is key. But all the time the focus should remain on doing real business and making real money. Business that should automatically become sustainable and robust, so those aspects should be built in from the start, by default.

Given the nature of the space environment, local autonomy should be the rule, but given the complexity and the associated huge costs of the resulting systems, international collaboration is a prerequisite. And even though the ultimate goals are great, in many ways, we should always try do things with small steps and – very important – always celebrate each success.