I would like to start by offering congratulations on behalf of the whole Via Satellite team to Dan Berkenstock of Skybox (Google) who has been announced as our Satellite Executive of the Year for 2014. Building a satellite imaging company to be worth $500 million in around seven years is an amazing achievement and an example of the great entrepreneurship that pervades the satellite sector. Berkenstock is a worthy winner and a great addition to the cannon of past winners.

It seems in some ways fitting that Berkenstock would be the winner this year, at a time where satellite is more in the mainstream business news than ever before. Firstly, we have heard the latest venture from O3b Networks founder Greg Wyler who has launched OneWeb, with the backing of the Virgin Group and Qualcomm to a blaze of publicity. The company plans to launch over 600 satellites. It is ambitious.

Not to be outdone, SpaceX has also unveiled plans to launch thousands of satellites in another venture, which is breathtaking in its ambition.

It seems satellite has never been this cool and the projects are getting bigger and better than ever. It still remains to be seen how these will exactly come to fruition, but in some ways it does signal a new era for the space industry. It is an exciting time, and I am sure these are not the last major satellite projects we will be hearing about in the coming months. They will undoubtedly be major talking points at SATELLITE 2015, which remains the must-go to event of the satellite industry.

It wasn’t long that ago, that at certain SATELLITE shows, the whole long-term existence of the satellite industry was being questioned, and whether the industry could stay relevant long into the future. With so many interesting plans, it looks as though the reality for the industry has never been brighter, and that is good news for all of us.

Mark Holmes is the editorial director for Via Satellite and Avionics Magazine.