In 📆 2022, the #SpaceIndustry was estimated to be worth US$350 billion 💵 and is projected to grow 📈 to more than one trillion 💰 dollars over the next two decades. Actors such as #SpaceX already own a majority of the #LEO#satellites 🛰️ . In the absence of a concerted global 🌏 dialogue, individual countries are pushing ahead with their own laws. Usually, international arrangements tend to arise 🥱 when there is a real risk of #conflict. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-00722-4
📆 Apr 18, 2023 🇪🇺 #European#SpacePolicy combined the worst of the parochial politics that guide #NASA funding in the #US with the sluggish ⏳ activity of a traditional aerospace company accustomed to guaranteed contracts. Naturally, therefore, development of the project has lagged and gone over budget. In the nine years since Europe began development of the #Ariane 6 to compete with #SpaceX, the #Falcon9 rocket has nearly doubled its payload capacity 📈 and become partially reusable, so it is now more capable and costs 💵 far less 📉 https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/04/europes-ariane-6-rocket-is-turning-into-a-space-policy-disaster
This spring, #ESA launched the #Juice Mission to #Jupiter - but why does it need 8 years to get there when the Voyager space probes, many decades ago, needed under two? Well, because we don't want to just zoom past Jupiter but to hand around there for a while, doing cool science.
And once Juice reached Jupiter comes the even more complicated part - getting into the orbit!
#NYT 📆 June 17, 2023 Estimated to be worth about $460 billion 💰, #SpaceBusinesses sometimes operate in legal black holes 🕳️
• In #theory, #space belongs to #everyone
• That perspective is about to collide with #reality
• #SpaceDebris 🗑️ : Since nobody owns space, it isn’t always clear whose #responsibility it is to clean it up
• The #US 🇺🇸 government has #deliberately left some holes
• Business leaders caution against creating so much regulation 👨⚖️ that it pushes #innovation#offshore while recognizing that we need rules
'You know, there is nothing we can do about #damage to the TPS. If it has been damaged it’s probably better not to know. I think the crew would rather not know. Don’t you think it would be better for them to have a happy successful flight and die unexpectedly during entry than to stay on #orbit, knowing that there was nothing to be done, until the air ran out ?'” https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20150130-what-caused-the-columbia-disaster
The Director General of the German 🇩🇪 #SpaceAgency revealed that funding for the #launcher competition will be in the same region as the 361 million Euro 💰 a year from 📆 2026 onwards for future #Ariane 6 (340 million) and #VegaC (21 million) launches that #ESA has agreed on. For the first phase, a projected three companies will compete with each other for funding of 75 million euros 💶 from the agency’s 📆 2022 budget https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2023/11/paradigm-shift-european-spaceflight/
While #NASA makes its budgetary decisions every year, and includes private companies in its strategies, the #ESA approves its spending once every three years after tortuous project-by-project haggling among its 22 member countries.
The #EU 🇪🇺 has a seven-year budget cycle. #China 🇨🇳 and the #US 🇺🇸 make decisions much quicker https://www.politico.eu/article/europes-space-pioneers-struggle-to-lift-off/