United States
2005 – Bigelow Space Stations
A privately financed company based in Las Vegas, Nevada, Bigelow Aerospace is licensing technology from NASA to build an inflatable in-space platform that could enable a number of on-orbit applications. Bigelow’s prototype inflatable platform was launched July 12, 2006, aboard a Russian- and Ukrainian-built Dnepr rocket, launched from Russia’s Yasny Launch Base by International Space Company (ISC) Kosmotras.
2005 – ISS
The largest in-space platform ever constructed is the International Space Station (ISS). “Led by the United States, the ISS draws upon the scientific and technological resources of 16 nations: Canada, Japan, Russia, 11 nations of the European Space Agency [Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom], and Brazil,” according to NASA.
2005 – GPS
The U.S. NAVSTAR (Navigation Signal Timing and Ranging) GPS constellation consists of ## active and ## spare satellites in MEO. According to the DoD, the fundamental concept of GPS is to use simultaneous distance measurements from ## satellites to compute the position and time of any receiver. The GPS signal is available without cost to users around the world and has spawned many commercial applications.
2005 – Spaceports Overview
Major United States and international launch sites, according to Teal Group and Astronautix are listed in Exhibit 2m. These launch sites are both commercial and government operated.
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 – 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.