ROOM
29
Astronautics
Space invaders
Also known as ‘aliens’ or ‘barbarians’ [3], these
companies do not belong to the regular crowd of
the ‘space club’. They have their own rules, coming
mainly from the IT world and are fast and agile,
with a fresh look on entry barriers.
Several private companies have emerged, first
in the US and now in Europe and worldwide, such
as Satellogic in Argentina [4] and NorStar Space
Data in Canada. Their ambition is to develop
and operate space systems and services with
disruptive commercial objectives.
Rise of NewSpace
These firms bet on low-cost technology to provide
more affordable space systems and services based
on EO data. The massive use of high-performance
commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) technologies
has already proved the feasibility of constellations
of several tens of cubesats weighing around 5 kg
and costing a few thousands of dollars per unit.
But NewSpace is not always orientated to ‘small is
beautiful’ - some initiatives are based on medium-
sized or even large satellites.
The big players of the web sphere are
increasingly interested in space and able to
invest massively. With a huge cash capacity, their
assumption is the disruption will be triggered by
the convergence between advanced information
technologies and EO: in June 2014 Google
surprised space remote sensing experts and
traditional players when it bought Skybox Imaging
for US$500 million.
NewSpace actors have scalable business models
(i.e. the capacity to start business before the full
deployment of the system). They believe they
can lower or break the market entry barriers.
They target the final user in a B2C (business
to consumer) approach with aggressive and
agile solutions. ‘Democratising’ access to space
imagery is usually a key element of their business
strategy. Nearly all promote information freshness,
apps or web platforms, data analytics tools and
subscriptions via the Internet.
Space nations
Whether they are veterans in space activities
(China or India) or newcomers deciding to have
their own EO capacities, more and more nations
are becoming active players in EO. This affects
both the competition and the accessible market.
For example, since mid-2016, SI imaging Services
(South Korea) has been distributing VHR imagery
(GSD <50 cm) acquired by Kompsat-3A. Another
New Space
is not always
orientated
towards ‘small
is beautiful’
High resolution on
small satellite: like
squaring the circle.
2015 was a record year
for venture capital
investment in space.
Spacetec Analysis/Tauri Group data
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2,000
1,800
1,600
1,400
1,200
1,000
800
600
400
200
0
Seed/Prize/Grant
Venture
Number of Venture Capital Firmen, Incubators and
Accelerators taking part in transactions
Venture Capital 2015
Breakdown
Oneweb
1,814
91
160
186
80
52
180
90
21
208
55
20
19
6
8
37
SpaceX
20
investments
inc.
Astroscale,
Orbital
Insight,
Mapbox and
SpaceFlight
industries
Mil USD
