What about some newspace metrics today? Here are the key figures I shared at today's #EUSpaceForum panel on financing and investing in space. 1/
The chronology of #newspace company creation worldwide with the total funding raised: 44b$ in 2 decades (only considering the upstream and downstream segments). See how company creation grew after 2012, and how it is receding in recent years. 2/
Considering that most funds were raised by 3 mega players (SpaceX, Blue Origin and Oneweb) it is interesting to look at the same chronological chart with these 3 excluded. Total equity is only 24B$, with an average funding per company of 37M$. 3/
And now the European focus, (Oneweb included) where we can notice that European startups represent every year almost 50% of new companeis created, but they are slightly small in average (27M$ in average equity raised, Oneweb not included). 4/
And last, the situation of European startups organised by main segment, with 3 indicators: number of companies, equity raised and total employment. Employment is an often disregarded indicator, despite the fact that it is a more widely available one. 6/end
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I would like to add my 2cts worth of wisdom to the opinion piece by @SPongruber that sadly concludes that "the question of how big the space economy is remains unanswered". Shall I mention that I respectfully disagree? 1/n
The paper recalls the story of the 1 Trillion space economy 'invention' and traces it back to the seminal estimate of 340B$ originally produced by @BryceSpaceTech for the SIA in 2016. 2/n
But there is no discussion of the essence of the original data set. So here is my take on that figure. 1) It adds instead of consolidating, 2) Most of the value of 'commercial space' comes from user terminals and distributed contents, and 3) 'Commercial' launch way too high. 3/n
Like every year, with @space_angelC we are updating the Eurospace #spaceeconomy data set with the compilation of 2021 launch events. I will post a few charts making this thread grow as I get them ready. So let's get started. 1/n #eurospacefacts
First the global situation. A few charts to look at the main trends in space activity from the supplier perspective, and in mass at launch. 2/
Here is the total mass launched by spacecraft production region. We clearly see that #Starlink (230t in 2020 and 260t in 2021) is disrupting launch mass statistics. We can also see the major growth of Chinese space activities. All of it is institutional. #eurospacefacts 3/
Here is another episode of the never ending launch price/cost saga, starring @momentusspace: I am surprised that I have not yet seen any commentary on their appreciation of the price of access to orbit as shown in the May 2022 investor presentation. static.seekingalpha.com/uploads/sa_pre… 1/
Beyond the fact that I don't know what is their basis for calculations, in particular how they allocate the cost of "own propulsion" to the launch, considering that the propulsion systems serves other functions, I gather from this that 15k$/kg is their price tag? 2/
So the "last mile" service actually applies a factor 3 to the baseline rideshare price on #SpaceX? I fail to see the viability of this model, but maybe it is still too early (also considering that #Vigoride didn't do very well so far: spacenews.com/momentus-attem…) 3/
#Starlink Gen2 is 5x bigger and 10x more capable than Gen1, i.e. 2x more efficient (not considering potential lifetime extension). Curious to see if service price drops accordingly, to enable more market penetration. But let's have a look at some launch numbers now. 1/
If Starlink Gen2 is 30000 satellites (spacenews.com/spacex-goes-al…) it represents 36000 tons at launch in total. Or 240 #Starship flights (at 150t/flight). 2/
@elonmusk noted that indeed F9 cannot be used to deploy Gen2, thus making Starship a single point of failure for the #Starlink project (as I noted in the past already) 3/
I thought I was the only using the burger analogy to explain space economics (scientificamerican.com/article/spacex…), well no: this report finds that a spaceport has an economic impact comparable to a couple of fast food restaurants. 1/
This was an independent assessment of the economic impact of a vertical launch site in Michigan, very much applicable to the spaceport project in Camden (Ga) that is facing a successful opposition from the locals. 2/ thecurrentga.org/2022/02/08/cam… thecurrentga.org/2022/05/10/wha…
The study notably analyses how the projected 'demand' for spaceports forecast in 2018-2020 will not materialise, and will leave new spaceports without a business. 3/ scribd.com/document/57283…
Quite some info here on @VirginOrbit and #launcherone to feed the never ending saga of launch costs reduction. Is it happening? is it supporting the 'smallsat revolution'? is it 'democratising' space and making it 'accessible to everyone'? 1/
First we read that the January 2022 launch yielded 2.1M$. With a total mass launched of less than 30kg, for 6 cubesats deployed (according to @planet4589 here: planet4589.org/space/gcat/dat…) that is a whopping >70k$/kg to orbit. Hardly a bargain. 2/
If that weren't enough, even at that price $VORB state they can't cover their costs for the next launches “It is probable for five of these launch service agreements that the costs to provide the service will exceed the firm fixed price of each launch” @VirginOrbit says 3/