Browse Resources by Year

2005 – Satellite Orbits

As geostationary (GSO) satellites remain in an essentially fixed position relative to the ground at all times, they can communicate with fixed ground stations continually. Medium Earth orbit (MEO) and low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites appear to “fly by” overhead and have a shorter communication window for a given station, from ten minutes for a LEO satellite to two hours or more for a MEO satellite. Satellites in highly elliptical orbits may be in communication with a fixed ground station for up to eight hours.

2005 – Satellite Overview

Satellites in use have four basic applications: communications, remote sensing, navigation, positioning and timing, and scientific experimentation (generally using a suite of sensors with variations of some or all of the other types). The sidebar describes the various satellite orbits.

2005 – Commercial Human Spaceflight

In 2005, six ISS resupply launches were made from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. NASA paid Roscosmos $## million per launch. NASA’s planned funding for COTS is shown in Exhibit 4q. In 2005, NASA spent $## billion on space operations, (which includes the shuttle and ISS) and spent $## billion on exploration systems. Note that these funds are reflected in the overall NASA budget shown for 2006.

2005 – Positioning, Navigation, and Timing Services

ABI Research estimates global market revenues for satellite-based positioning technologies for all applications at $## billion for 2005, see Exhibit 4o, The Industrial Technology Research Institute estimated 2003 GPS production value at $## billion and growing. Trends in GPS growth were reported in Business Week, along with a discussion of the entrance of “mainstream” electronics firms into the GPS marketplace:

2005 – Earth Observation

SIA reported that revenue for global commercial satellite remote sensing increased approximately ## percent from 2004 to 2005, driven by evolving business opportunities, new and continuing military and intelligence imagery contracts, and expanding civil and commercial imagery markets, including online mapping services. The SIA includes remote sensing as part of its FSS revenue estimate.

2005 – Satellite Television

Direct-to-home television services (referred to as DBS or DTH services) represent the largest portion of satellite services revenue. SIA estimates 2005 DBS/DARS industry revenue of $## billion, which yields a DBS estimate of $## billion net of the $## million in 2005 revenues reported by the three DARS providers (Exhibit 4l).[SIA estimates DBS subscribership at ## million in 2005. In-Stat, in its 2006 report, Worldwide Satellite Pay-TV Market, puts 2005 DTH television revenue at $## billion. Additionally…

2005 – Satellite Radio

Revenue in 2005 for satellite radio was about $## billion, from three firms: XM Radio, reporting 2005 revenues of $## million; Sirius Satellite Radio, reporting 2005 revenues of $## million; and WorldSpace, reporting 2005 revenues of $## million. SIA’s estimate for this segment is not released separately from its DBS estimate.

2005 – Satellite Communications

SIA’s Satellite Industry Survey does not report telephone trunking revenue (i.e., telephony-related revenue from transponder leasing) separately, but as part of the FSS market. SIA also includes VSAT revenue, revenue from data and video transponder leasing, and remote sensing in FSS revenue, for a total of $## billion. Euroconsult lists FSS market revenue as $## billion for 2005; this number is based on revenues from all 36 FSS satellite operators.

2005 – RDT&E and IR&D funding

Independent Research and Development (IR&D) costs are estimated at $## billion, half of which was retroactively funded by the DoD. Assuming that the proportion of aerospace IR&D to space IR&D is the same as the proportion of aerospace research, development, test, and evaluation (RDT&E) ($## billion) and space RDT&E ($## billion), the IR&D covered by corporations is about $## million.

2005 – Space Insurance

The revenue for space insurance in 2005 was $## million.