Market Share

Although space commercialization in the United States began as far back as 1964, commercial initiatives did not begin to build momentum until the early 1980s. Worldwide, companies such as Arianespace in France and RSC Energia in Russia provide strong competition in the commercial marketplace to U.S. contractors such as Lockheed Martin Corporation. For the most part, large contract companies still share a large segment of the commercial marketplace.

The U.S. Department of Commerce reported total U.S. commercial space revenues in 1988 of an estimated $1.8 billion, primarily in the area of satellite communications and related ground support. This number doubled in 1990, with the United States retaining about 60 percent of the world market in communications satellites. By 2000, other services, such as remote sensing (photographic imaging from space), were still in their infancy commercially, but the market for such services was expected to grow substantially by 2005. The market for satellite imagery in the United States had already grown from a $39 million industry in 1988 to $139 million in 1998. The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace projected that remote sensing revenues would reach $420 million by 2005.

According to Facts and Figures: The European Space Industry in 1998, European companies generated $5.1 billion in total revenue in 1998, comprising 47 percent of the total European market. This was an increase from 1996 when government programs constituted two-thirds of the European market. Worldwide, the French consortium Arianespace held approximately 50 percent of the total market for launching satellites in 1988. Proven rocket families, such as the French Ariane, the U.S. Delta, and the Russian Proton, still maintain great success in the transportation industry. New partnerships by known industry leaders, such as the Sea Launch partnership of Energia and Boeing, are creating greater competition in the marketplace.

New Initiatives

Early in 2000, several media agreements were signed to provide wider public access to space through the Internet and high-definition television. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration inked a $100 million deal with an Internet start-up to create high-definition images from the space shuttle and the International Space Station (ISS), while the U.S. company Spacehab Incorporated signed with Russia's RSC Energia to form a commercial partnership to utilize future resources on the ISS. Other historical milestones are also being achieved commercially, such as the successful mission of two Russian cosmonauts to the space station Mir beginning in April 2000. This was the first privately funded, piloted space mission in history.

In 1999, 128 spacecraft were launched worldwide, with a total of seventy-six, or 59 percent, from commercial companies. Total space revenues for 1999 reached $87 billion, with the International Space Business Council estimating growth of 93 percent through 2005.

History has shown that one of the biggest hurdles for space commercialization in any country is a government's willingness and ability to implement policies to promote and assure commercial participation and success. Such cooperation will ensure diversity and competition in future technologies. Because of the complexities of space technology, new products influence such issues as national defense and international import and export policies. These issues will continue to influence progress and profit in space commerce.

see also Legislative Environment (volume 1); Marketplace (volume 1); Regulation (volume 1); Space Industries (volume 4).

Neil Dahlstrom and Jeff Manber

Bibliography

Eurospace. Facts and Figures: The European Space Industry in 1998. Paris: Pierre Lionnet, 1999.

Florini, Ann M., and Yahja A. Dehqanzada. Secrets for Sale: How Commercial Satellite Imagery Will Change the World. Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2000.

International Space Business Council. State of the Space Industry, 2000. Arlington, VA:Author, 2000.

U.S. Department of Commerce. Economics and Statistics Administration and Office of Space Commerce. Space Business Indicators. Washington, DC: Author, 1991.