International space efforts to double in next decade
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The new colonial movement: According to a new industry analysis, the number of countries with active space efforts will double to almost fifty in the next decade.
By 2025, we estimate that the number of emerging space programs will increase to 47 countries around the world. This includes 23 newcomers who will have committed their first investment in space between 2016 and 2025. Over 130 satellites are forecast to be launched in the next 10 years, nearly double that of the last decade. The total value of these satellites should more than double at nearly $12 billion, versus more than $5 billion during 2006-2015.
The new efforts are not confined to the traditional space programs, but also include nations that will be purchasing services from others to build satellites for them.
Please consider donating to Behind the Black, by giving either a one-time contribution or a regular subscription, as outlined in the tip jar to the right or below. Your support will allow me to continue covering science and culture as I have for the past twenty years, independent and free from any outside influence.
The new colonial movement: According to a new industry analysis, the number of countries with active space efforts will double to almost fifty in the next decade.
By 2025, we estimate that the number of emerging space programs will increase to 47 countries around the world. This includes 23 newcomers who will have committed their first investment in space between 2016 and 2025. Over 130 satellites are forecast to be launched in the next 10 years, nearly double that of the last decade. The total value of these satellites should more than double at nearly $12 billion, versus more than $5 billion during 2006-2015.
The new efforts are not confined to the traditional space programs, but also include nations that will be purchasing services from others to build satellites for them.
This is exciting news. As the number of countries, companies, and universities active in space exploration increase, we will get a greater diversity of experiments and will learn more — faster — than if it had only been the two big countries spending their limited funds. I anticipate many good things coming from this expansion of space-faring countries.
The number of forecast satellites is about 1/10th of the number that the current space-faring countries would be expected to launch over the same decade.
I also expect more countries to set up their own *manned* space programs, if only to send people to some of Bigelow’s (future) space laboratories. With private manned spacecraft, countries will not have to spend the large sums of money to develop their own rockets and won’t have to conform to another country’s rules and limits for guest astronauts. With their own astronauts (or whatever they choose to call their star voyagers), they can perform their own experiments privately, without anyone else learning what they have discovered, giving them their own advantage over the current space-faring countries.