Software and artificial intelligence are being used more and more to improve and enrich space services, and above all, they are enabling systems to evolve in the course of their life cycle. Heavy use of software-enabled systems, software-defined payloads, and software-defined satellites is anticipated in the satellite sector. Among the market signals about this trend, Rivada Networks, which plans a fleet of 300 satellites in LEO, selected Spacetime's software orchestration platform; Iridium Next, built by Thales Alenia Space, is entirely software-based; and Intelsat will use Kratos' OpenSpace platform to instantly enable new services.