Defense One reports, “The U.S. government must reduce environmental and other regulations to make it easier for commercial space companies to launch rockets, expand launch facilities, and perform “novel” space activities, according to a new executive order. “It is the policy of the United States to enhance American greatness in space by enabling a competitive launch marketplace and substantially increasing commercial space launch cadence and novel space activities by 2030,” says the order, signed Wednesday by President Donald Trump.”
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Tag: space industry
The Space Industry Dilemma of Moving from Innovator to Integrator
FROM THE INSTITUTE
Having long tackled the innovators’ dilemma to adjust to technological transformation, the space industry is now poised to tackle the integrators’ dilemma: what to do with all that innovation and how to use it. A panel discussion at 2025 ASCEND explored the theme, tapping experts in academia and industry.
Full Story (Aerospace America)
NOAA Says Evidence of Rare Metals in Stratosphere Likely from Rocket Launches
The Washington Post reports NOAA researchers collected and analyzed particles in the stratosphere that indicates the presence of rare elemental metals niobium and hafnium, which “are common in spacecraft manufacturing and can be found in semiconductors, rocket chambers and other applications.” The discovery “sheds light on the environmental aftermath of a growing number of rockets, satellites and other human-made spacecraft that give off metal vapors as they reenter the atmosphere.” The researchers also “identified aluminum, lithium, copper and lead in the stratosphere – all of which are linked to alloys used by the aerospace industry.” It is still unclear “how the existence of these rare metals and other elements in the stratosphere might influence the climate.”
Full Story (Washington Post – Subscription Publication)
Commercial Space Industry Projected to Experience 41% Growth Over Next Five Years
Fortune reports that the global space economy “grew 8% to $546 billion in 2022 and is projected to climb another 41% over the next five years, according to a leading space nonprofit.” The sector is expected “to show resiliency in the coming years, despite uncertainty about the global economy and a recent slowdown in space investment.” Companies are seeing “continued revenue growth from commercial space assets and governments around the world boosting expenditures, according to a report from the Space Foundation, a Colorado Springs, Colorado-based space flight advocacy group.” The analysis “considered spending from 51 governments, as well as commercial revenue from companies in 11 space industry sub-sectors.” Space Foundation Director of Research and Digital Programming Lesley Conn said, “Commercial space is the vital growing sector of the overall space economy. Within five years, certainly you’re going to see a real acceleration and an expansion of space and space assets.”
Full Story (Fortune)
What to Expect in the Space Industry in 2023
The New York Times reports that in 2022, NASA “wowed us with cosmic scenes captured by the James Webb Space Telescope.” The DART mission “slammed an asteroid into a new orbit. Artemis I set humanity on a course back to the moon.” China finished “building a new space station in orbit, SpaceX launched 61 rockets in 12 months, and the invasion of Ukraine imperiled Russia’s status as a space power.” It’s a lot “to measure up to, but 2023 is bound to have some excitement on the launchpad, the lunar surface and in the sky.” SpaceX is building Starship for Artemis III and “numerous other rockets may take flight for the first time in 2023.” The most important, Vulcan Centaur by United Launch Alliance, “will eventually replace that company’s Atlas V, a vehicle that has been central to American spaceflight for two decades.” A number of “American private companies are expected to test new rockets in 2023, including Relativity and ABL.” They could “be joined by foreign rocket makers, including Mitsubishi Heavy Industries which could test Japan’s H3 rocket in February, and Arianespace, which is working toward a test flight of Europe’s Ariane 6 rocket.” We’re guaranteed “at least one lunar landing attempt in 2023.” A Japanese company, ispace, “launched its M1 mission on a SpaceX rocket in December.” It’s taking a “slow, fuel-efficient route to the moon and is set to arrive in April, when it will try to deploy a rover built by the United Arab Emirates, a robot built by Japan’s space agency, JAXA, as well as other payloads.”
Full Story (New York Times)
Space Industry Warned of Recession Impact
Space News reports that United Launch Alliance CEO Tory Bruno on Monday warned of the negative impact on the space industry by a possible recession. Quilty Analytics reported, “We expect the slowdown in public capital markets activity to continue, at least in the near-term, until market volatility remains subdued for a sufficient period of time.” Bruno noted the current environment is not favorable for high-risk investments, including those in the space sector. Bruno added, “There may be some companies that would have been great to have saved. But the ones that do get invested in are going to get a lot more attention and have a better chance of surviving.”
Full Story (Space News)
James Webb Space Telescope Damaged by Meteoroids
BBC News reports that one of the main mirrors of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has been damaged by impact of a small meteoroid. NASA reports the meteoroid struck the space observatory “sometime between 23 and 25 May,” but is unlikely to affect mission performance.
Full Story (BBC News)
Space Industry Expected to Reach $1T In Revenue by 2040
CNBC reported that the space industry “should reach $1 trillion in annual revenue by 2040, with launch costs dropping 95%, Citigroup analysts said in an extensive report published this month.” Citi said, “Revenue from manufacturing, launch services and ground equipment will make up the majority of the revenue growth in the satellite sector. However, the fastest growth rate is expected to come from new space applications and industries, with revenue forecast to rise from zero to $101 billion over the period.”
Full Story (CNBC)
SpaceX Launches Falcon 9 for Second Time in Three Weeks
Spaceflight Now reported that SpaceX “continued throttling up its launch rate with another Starlink mission from Cape Canaveral Friday, completing a rapid recycle with a Falcon 9 first stage booster flying for the second time in 21 days.”
Full Story (Spaceflight Now)
James Webb Space Telescope Fully Aligned
CNN reports that the James Webb Space Telescope is now “completely aligned, according to the NASA’s Webb team.” Webb “will be able to peer inside the atmospheres of exoplanets and observe some of the first galaxies created after the universe began by observing them through infrared light, which is invisible to the human eye.” The first high-resolution images “Webb collects of the cosmos aren’t expected until the end of June since the observatory’s instruments still need to be calibrated.”
Full Story (CNN)