Economy
Commercial Infrastructure and Support Industries
2007 – Commercial Human Spaceflight
While the personal spaceflight market is still in its early stages, revenue continues to accumulate for individual trips and as deposits for future flights. Charles Simonyi, by his own account, paid $## million for his 2007 flight to the ISS. Alex Tai, chief operating officer of Virgin Galactic, a spaceline offering suborbital flights, reported in late 2007 that the company had collected $## million in deposits for future suborbital trips aboard SpaceShipTwo.
2007 – Space Insurance
Revenue from space insurance premiums is estimated to be lower in 2007 than in 2006. This is partially due to the loss of the NSS-8 satellite from the January explosion of Sea Launch’s Zenit-3SL. Several insured launches were postponed as a result. Pagnanelli Risk Solutions, an insurance consultancy, estimates total premiums of between $## and $## million.
2007 – Ground Stations and Receivers
Ground equipment was the largest growth sector of space infrastructure in 2007, increasing ##% over 2006. Revenue from ground equipment related to space operations is estimated at $## billion in 2007. This value is a projection based on the last five years of SIA ground equipment revenues.
2007 – Space Stations
Funding for the largest in-space platform, the International Space Station (ISS), is included under the government budgets of ISS partners. NASA, the largest contributor to the ISS, budgeted $## billion for the ISS in 2007, but actual expenditures were not available due to delays in the congressional budget process.[
2007 – Satellite Manufacturing
Satellite manufacturing revenue increased ##% overall to an estimated $## billion. This growth was driven by a ##% growth in revenue for government payloads to $## billion. Despite the overall growth, revenue for commercial manufacturing actually fell ##% to $## billion. These numbers represent revenues from satellite payloads in the year they were launched, not necessarily when satellite manufacturers received revenue. The year 2007 saw the launch of ## satellites, ## of which were commercial.
2007 – Launch Industry
Commercial launch industry revenue exhibited modest growth in 2007, increasing #% over 2006. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reports that the commercial launch vehicle industry generated $## billion in revenue in 2007, from ## launches, carrying ## payloads. Exhibit 1f shows commercial launch market share. Russia continues to launch the largest share of commercial payloads, slightly more than the U.S. and Europe combined.
2007 – Commercial Infrastructure and Support Industries Overview
Revenue in 2007 for space infrastructure, including launch vehicles, satellites, ground stations, in-space platforms, and infrastructure support industries totaled $## billion, an increase of ##% over 2006. Ground stations and equipment saw the greatest growth at approximately ##%. Space infrastructure revenue estimates are shown in Exhibit 1e. Government budgets include funding for infrastructure, but government expenditures are addressed separately in U.S. Government Space Budgets.
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 – Space Insurance
The revenue for space insurance in 2005 was $## million.
2005 – Ground Stations and Receivers
Ground equipment revenues were $## billion in 2005, according to SIA data. These revenues include infrastructure elements such as mobile terminals, gateways, control stations, as well as end-user equipment such as very small aperture terminals (VSATs) and ultra small aperture terminals (USATs), direct-to-home (DTH) broadcast dishes, satellite phones and digital audio radio satellite (DARS) equipment.