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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 10 February 2010 20:02 )
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Brief Introduction
U.S. Commercial Space Policy and NASA's "Commercial Crew" Initiative
U.S. Aerospace Companies
Major Non-U.S. Aerospace Companies
BRIEF INTRODUCTION
The "Space Economy"
As published in The Space Report 2009: The Authoritative Guide to Global Space Activity, worldwide space revenues in 2008 were $257 billion, an increase of 2.5% over 2007. This annual report from the Space Foundation tracks worldwide spending by governments, the private sector and consumers. According to the report's free executive summary, this $257 billion "space economy" is comprised of the following segments:
- commercial satellite services, 35% ($91 billion)
- commercial space infrastructure (such as launch vehicles, satellites, ground stations, and in-space platforms) 32% ($81.97 billion)
- U.S. government space budgets, 26% ($66.63 billion);
- international government space budgets, 6% ($16.44 billion);
- infrastructure support industries, less than 1% ($1.14 billion), and
- space commercial transportation services, less than 1% ($0.04 billion).
Defining "Commercial" Space Activities
The subset of the activities listed above that are "commercial" varies by definition. Some consider a commercial activity to be one in which a private sector entity puts its own capital at risk and provides goods or services primarily to other private sector entities or consumers rather than to the government. Examples of these activities would be direct-to-home satellite television (e.g. DirecTV and DishTV), satellite radio (Sirius XM), and commercial fixed satellites that transmit voice, data and Internet services (such as Intelsat Ltd., PanAmSat, Luxembourg's SES Global, and France's Eutelsat).
Other definitions are broader and include sales of consumer equipment by companies even though the satellite system is owned by the government. The chief example of this is the Global Positioning System (GPS) navigation satellite system that is owned by the U.S. Department of Defense, but has a vast array of consumer users ranging from automobile navigation systems to cell phones to precision farming.
Still broader definitions of commercial space activities include those where a company provides services primarily to government customers, such as the Boeing-Lockheed Martin United Launch Alliance (ULA), or remote sensing satellite companies (GeoEye and DigitalGlobe). Others do not consider these commercial because they are reliant on government investments for building the satellites or launch vehicles and/or purchasing the products or services and the government shoulders most of the risk. The government requires the services, making it unlikely it would withdraw its subsidies.
U.S. COMMERCIAL SPACE POLICY AND NASA'S "COMMERCIAL CREW" INITIATIVE
It might seem an oxymoron for there to be governmental policy with regard to commercial space activities, since ordinarily commercial activities are by their very nature independent of the government. That is not the case with "commercial" space, however. The government plays a major role in commercial space in many ways, from establishing policies that direct government agencies to purchase services from companies to directly paying for satellites or other major hardware that enable the company to exist. For example, the government paid for building the commercial remote sensing satellites that provide imagery that GeoEye and Digital Globe sell to the government and other customers. U.S. commercial space policy is currently part of President George W. Bush's 2003 Commerical Remote Sensing Policy, 2005 Space Transportation Policy, and 2006 National Space Policy. President Obama ordered a review of U.S. space policy shortly after he took office in 2009; a new policy could be articulated in 2010.
In its FY2011 budget request, NASA is requesting $6 billion over 5 years (FY2011-2015) to subsidize companies to develop "commercial crew" launch vehicles and spacecraft. NASA wants to cancel its Constellation program to build new launch vehicles (Ares I and V) and a spacecraft (Orion) to take astronauts to the International Space Station in Earth orbit, back to the Moon, and on to Mars. The concept is called "commercial crew" in that the United States would rely on private sector companies to take astronauts to Earth orbit and beyond instead of NASA. NASA would pay the private sector to develop the commercial crew capabilties. The proposal is very controversial and is now being debated in Congress.
NASA already had initiated a program to rely on the commercial sector to take cargo to the International Space Station (ISS), called COTS (Commercial Orbital Transportation System), because NASA decided to terminate the space shuttle program, which was originally envisioned to take both crews and cargo to ISS. The last space shuttle mission will take place this year (2010). Two companies, SpaceX and Orbital, were awarded contracts to develop capabilities to take cargo to the ISS. NASA also is pursuing opportunities to have the private sector take over responsibility for sending people to ISS, and someday beyond low Earth orbit. In February 2010, NASA awarded contracts to five companies for Crew Transportation Concepts and Technology Demonstration, or CCDEV (commercial crew development). The companies are: Blue Origin, Boeing, Paragon Space Development Corp., Sierra Nevada Corp., and United Launch Alliance.
U.S. AEROSPACE COMPANIES
Hundreds of companies are involved in the aerospace sector, even when looking only at the "space" part of the business and not aircraft. The following list is not meant to be exhaustive, but to provide links to some of the companies that are most often referenced in discussions about space policy.
The "big three" U.S. aerospace companies are:
In addition, Boeing and Lockheed Martin co-own
Other major U.S. aerospace companies include:
Major U.S. companies that sell space-related products or services include:
Entrepreneurial companies:
MAJOR NON-U.S. AEROSPACE COMPANIES
There also are hundreds of non-U.S. companies in the aerospace sector. The following list is not meant to be exhaustive, but to provide links to companies that are most often referenced in discussions about space policy.
- Arianespace (French, launch services)
- EADS (French-German/European diversified aerospace company)
- Eutelsat (European fixed satellite services)
- Inmarsat (global mobile satellite services, based in UK)
- Intelsat (global fixed satellite services, based in UK (Bermuda))
- Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (Japanese, satellites and in-space platforms)
- SeaLaunch (international consortium, satellite launch services)
- SES (European fixed satellite services, including the Dutch SES World Skies, which includes the company once known as SES Americom)
- SpotImage (French, satellite remote sensing)
- Thales Alenia Space (French/European, communications satellite manufacturing)
Entrepreneurial
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