• Morgan Stanley estimates that the global space industry could generate revenue of more than $1 trillion by 2040, up from $350 billion today, driven by communications, transportation and earth observation.
  • National Security interest in space is very high with bi-partisan support, and not well understood by the market. “The US lost public support for Space when we lost our rival,"  Neil Armstrong once said. Now the US has a new rival in Space; China has launched the most satellites in orbit so far this year.
  • Value creation in Space is shifting from hardware to software. Matt O’Connell, Seraphim’s Managing Partner was on the Private Capital Panel, which highlighted Location Intelligence or alternatives to GPS, Cybersecurity and AI Geospatial Analytics as under-appreciated areas.
  • Venture investors are more cautious, in particular on the launch market due to overcapacity. Later-stage financing rounds took longer than expected this year due to lack of exits and startup failures. (Vector Launch and LeoSat).
  • US National Security Priorities - Defense contractors Parsons Corporation, Jacobs joined by startup HawkEye360 highlighted the following areas as national security priorities: Space Situational Awareness, hypersonic detection,  cybersecurity and sensor/payload. Key to the future is data analytics/GEOINT (how to collect, process and disseminate data). On-board processing, edge computing would enable rapid delivery of insights.
  • Geospatial Data Need to be Interoperable to be Useful. During a lively Earth Observation debate, Maxar Technologies touted the superior spatial, spectral and temporal capabilities of their new Legion constellation (high resolution, high revisit with under 1 hour from collection to delivery), which is expected to be launched in 2021. While Planet is planning to go from 4 spectral band to 8, lower their Skysats to get to higher resolution (50cm) data. In order to expand the EO market, both agreed that we need multiple data sets and analytics, and they need to be interoperable to be useful.
  • Reusability and Scale are Key to Solving the Launch Bottleneck to Space. Leading small launcher Rocket Lab plans to double its launch in 2020 to once a month, then target once a week to open up access to Low Earth Orbit (LEO). Small launch offers the advantage of precise timing and orbit relative to rideshare on larger rockets.