The space economy: a public-private partnership?
Jeff Foust
The Space Review
Henry Hertzfeld, a professor at George Washington University, notes that such estimates can vary somewhat depending on methodologies, but in general the space economy is tiny compared to the global economy: about 0.5 percent of global GDP, he estimated.
A large chunk of that $250 billion is spent on consumer applications, like direct to home television and GPS receivers, that are broadly commercial. However, there is a core infrastructure of space services and applications, like launch and manufacturing, where there is a greater interdependence between the public and private sector.
“Governments and the aerospace sector are Siamese twins,” said Keith Hayward, director of research for the Royal Aeronautical Society. “They are bound together in one way or another.” That meant, he believes, that the government will continue to play a considerable role in the space sector for the foreseeable future. “How soon will that shift? Not very.”
“All space endeavors involve partnerships of some sort with government; some more involved, some less,” said Hertzfeld. “Most of the tension in those partnerships is who assumes the ultimate risk.”
Read the full analysis.
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