Growth in the Global Space Economy and its Impact on Emerging Space Countries
- Paper number
IAC-11,E3,3,12,x11338
- Author
Mr. Micah Walter-Range, Space Foundation, United States
- Coauthor
Ms. Mariel Borowitz, Space Foundation, United States
- Coauthor
Mr. G. Ryan Faith, Space Foundation, United States
- Year
2011
- Abstract
While the world economy continued its recovery in 2010 from a recession that caused losses in many industries, the space economy grew at an even greater rate than in previous years. Although established spacefaring countries were responsible for most of this growth, emerging countries are committing resources to space programs with the intention of reaping the benefits of space activity. This paper presents the Space Foundation’s findings in The Space Report 2011, providing figures and trends for government spending and commercial revenue throughout the world during 2010. Emerging space countries are often open to new partnerships with government and commercial entities in established space countries. In addition, they provide new markets for suppliers of space products and services. This paper examines trends in intergovernmental and government-industry relationships that are helping to shape the activities of emerging space countries. Analysis of government spending and commercial revenue serves to highlight key areas for growth in the space economy as a whole and for emerging space countries in particular. Emerging countries tend to focus on space activities that provide immediate benefits to their citizens, such as remote sensing and telecommunications. Both sectors are forecast to experience continued growth, partly due to investments by new space actors and the markets that they provide for commercial operations. Alternative business models, such as hosted payloads, are being adopted by space actors to fuel continued growth and provide easier access to space. These trends may benefit emerging space countries by offering opportunities to maximize their investments in space by foregoing broad technology development programs in favor of developing expertise in specific areas. The data and analysis of the space economy provided by the Space Foundation in The Space Report 2011 offers insight by providing revenue and budget figures as well as the growth drivers and underlying trends for space infrastructure, space products and services, and government space budgets. Data is derived from publicly available commercial revenue reports and government budget sources. Forecasts and projections from industry research firms and other open sources are included to provide a forward-looking view of the global space industry. The methodology used to measure the space economy employs several valuation techniques that combine data collection, estimates, internal analysis, and external citations. The sources include public information as well as analysis by a number of third parties such as the media, market analysts, and researchers.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
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