Pandemic Is 'Economic Disaster' for Parts of Space Economy, Experts Say

The pandemic has hit the commercial space industry and the space economy but not as hard as for some other industries or as badly as it could have been, experts said Wednesday at an International Institute of Space Law symposium. IISL President Kai-Uwe Schrogl said the aeronautics industry suffered more. He said smaller space companies and startups might face short- and medium-term challenges getting financing, and governments need to try to bolster and maintain the commercial space industry's attractiveness to financing. He said there were estimates that the $300 billion global space economy might hit $1 trillion by 2030, but the economic downturn due to the pandemic likely pushed that a few years further into the future. Nanoracks General Counsel Jessica Noble said the company had notable numbers of delays in cubesat projects done in partnership with universities. This year has been "an economic disaster" for the European space industry, said Fritz Merkle, U.S. Space Foundation board member. He said European space operations were hit by the reduced working mode of space agencies and government entities important for contracting new programs. The French and European Space Agency Guiana Space Centre spaceport in French Guiana was closed for weeks, he said, noting private investment in space also is slumping, particularly for European satellite communications. He said the economic downturn will likely continue until a COVID-19 vaccine returns things to some form of normalcy. China's space efforts haven't been largely impacted, said Guoyu Wang, associate professor at Beijing Institute of Technology's Academy of Air, Space Policy and Law. He said China has had 37 launches so far this year, and the carrying capacity of its rockets has reached new levels. He said this year also saw China's first successful commercial launches, and the commercial launch industry will be "a strong supplement" to its national launch capabilities. He said China's Beidou-3 global navigation satellite system is fully operational and providing global service; by October, more than 700 million products with Beidou-compatible chipsets were in China, including smartphones, and Beidou-compatible products had been exported to 120 nations.