Taking your business into orbit in 2019

Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are the names that come to mind when words like ‘business’ and ‘space’ appear in the same sentence. Indeed, true space enthusiasts, and billionaires to that matter, have put their fortunes on the line to pursue their space dreams. Before them, only governments and established corporations could associate themselves with space industry. 

What about now? Are hundreds of millions still required to cross the high entry barrier? Do you still need your government to support you in building a satellite? Is it still as hard as rocket science is?

Well, yes. It is still rocket science. However, what SpaceX and Bezos’ Blue Origin are actually doing is turning the romanticism of the unknown worlds into the economic feasibility of space exploration. The new gold rush of space is seeing dozens and dozens of companies striving to commercialize the Moon, asteroids and Low Earth Orbit (LEO). A recently updated map of space companies by Seraphim Capital describes space start-up community as a well-established scene with its own market segments, ecosystem, and access to capital.

A few years ago, space industry has been revolutionized by traditional garage-based entrepreneurs, who have come in and paved the way for the new wave of businessmen. Do you want to travel to space and back? Launch and test new technologies in orbit? See what other planets look like from a close distance? None of these activities have been more accessible than today. The reason Spacetech has become a new hot topic for investors and entrepreneurs is not the hype or crazy dreamers, but the promise of high return and big payouts. You can start your venture with an angel investor or a government grant. According to the latest report by Space Angels, 32 new firms have already made their first investments in space economy this year, bringing the total to 587. 

The value of U.S. public funding received by entrepreneurial space companies from 2000 through 2018 was $7.2B across 67 companies. Even mainstream enterprise are space-driven and actively promote their activities. In June this year, Amazon held a “golden age of information” conference re:MARS, and earlier Jeff Bezos gave a speech on Blue Moon – his intentions are to build infrastructure for future start-ups in space. Companies like Bezos’ Blue Origin, SpaceX, and Relativity Space have chosen economic efficiency as their motto. We are on the edge of technological and economical breakthrough due to drastic reduction of the cost of access to space. Improved reusability, Starship architecture, and smart multi-manifest launches are just the first few steps of the way. 

Space domain provides one true benefit, which is not available in any other industry. Once you are in orbit, you are immediately able to serve the whole population of the world – our Globe is at your fingertips. Observe, discover, analyze, plan and communicate across all the boundaries. Newly developed standards, abundance and competitive nature of the supply chain provide resources for companies to execute new business ideas in space with unprecedented ease. 

If you are thinking of launching a space venture — we are here to help and navigate. Precious Payload will be featuring stories of bright entrepreneurs from the industry. Our new series of interviews with successful space start-ups aims to inspire more people to join the space race. Look ahead for our first video with Awais Ahmed from Pixxel– an Indian-American start-up that is looking into providing frequently updated high-resolution imagery data for further analysis and informative decision making.

More food for thought can be found here:

These 5 industries will be first to do business in space

100 Earth Shattering Remote Sensing Applications & Uses

Betting on the stars: what value can investors find in space?