The Space Report
The Space Report: The Authoritative Guide to Global Space Activity[1] is published annually by the Space Foundation. The Space Report 2009 is the definitive overview of the global space industry and serves as a valuable resource for government and business leaders, educators, financial analysts, students, and space-related businesses.
The Space Report 2009 showed that the global space economy grew nearly 2.5 percent in 2008, rising by $6 billion to $257 billion in worldwide space revenues. Perhaps even more indicative of the state of space is that the largest segments of the space economy were in commercial infrastructure and commercial satellite services, which together totaled 67 percent, compared to about 32 percent for government space spending. The largest growth sectors were space products and services, which grew 10.4 percent from $82.4 billion to $91 billion. The majority of this figure is attributable to direct-to-home television services, which generated $69.8 billion in 2008. Fixed satellite services showed the strongest growth rate in the services sector, with revenue up 31 percent from $12.8 billion to $16.8 billion.
Even with this growth, space industry stocks suffered along with the world economy in 2008. The Space Foundation Index [2], which tracks the market performance of 29 public companies that derive a significant amount of their revenue from space-related assets and activities, revealed that space stocks in U.S. markets declined 45 percent in 2008, erasing the gains from three consecutive years of growth. Still, space investment and output remained strong in 2008 and continued to provide hundreds of thousands of highly compensated jobs. The Space Foundation also offers to additiona1 indices: The Space Foundation Infrastructure Index, which tracks performance of space-related hardware, software, and integration services for space-related applications such as manufacturing of satellites, launch vehicles, terminals and chipsets; and The Space Foundation Services Index, which tracks performance of companies that derive significant revenues from services that depend on space assets for collection, transmission, and/or provisioning, such as those related to satellite broadcasting, communications, and remote sensing.
All three indexes are updated daily on the Space Foundation’s Web site, at www.SpaceFoundation.org/spaceindex.
The Space Report 2009 also provides an overview of the past year in space. Major accomplishments include:
- The first-ever observation of a supernova at the moment of explosion
- The discovery by the Phoenix Mars Lander of water ice on Mars, a sign of the potential for life on the planet
- The successful destruction of a satellite by missile to prevent an uncontrolled fall from orbit
- The first Chinese spacewalk, completed during the Shenzhou 7 mission, making China only the third nation to independently complete this feat
- Completion of 59 consecutive successful launches by the U.S. Air Force and its commercial contractors
- SpaceX’s launch of the first-ever orbital launch vehicle funded entirely with private capital, successfully carrying a payload into space