The Paradigm Shift of NewSpace: New Business Models and Growth of the Space Economy

Abstract

The New Space Economy shall be considered as an important paradigm shift in space business. Indeed, on the one hand this new approach leads via new satellite constellations to a more global coverage of space data, but on the other hand to a more affordable approach to produce and launch SmallSats. This presently allows an increasing number of countries to take part in space endeavors. Dedicated micro-launchers, which are under development, will accelerate this evolution over the coming years, extending the possibility of finding the most suitable launch opportunity. Moreover, an important catalyst in this process is the increasing availability of equity financing for space-related start-ups. In this article, we will first focus on how space business has evolved over the past decennia from governmental to commercial space activities, highlighting the origins of what is presently labeled as NewSpace. It will be shown that many analysts are optimistic about the important growth in the sector reaching over 1 trillion USD by 2040. However, those analysts stress the fact that this is only possible if new activities, such as Cislunar ones, are soon developed, as well as more commercial applications linked to recent low Earth orbit constellations such as OneWeb, Starlink, and Kuiper. In this Cislunar domain, private launcher developments are scheduled to allow for payload transport of large and heavy structures, as is the case for Starship. The organizational structure of NewSpace companies, as well as the entrepreneurial boost for novel applications, will be highlighted. A crucial factor later covered in this article is a number of present obstacles that cannot be ignored and require solutions in the coming years to allow for this growth in space business turnover.