WASHINGTON -- There is a global wake-up call ringing loudly for spacefaring nations.
The aerospace industry faces a major overhaul if promising
commercial space markets are to be realized in coming years.
Top space leaders from government, companies and organizations from around the world are meeting here October 24-26 for the 2000 International Space Symposium, sponsored by the Space Foundation.
The International Space Station orbits Earth alone moments after Discovery undocks on Oct. 20, 2000 during mission STS-92.
Today’s $100 billion global space industry represents a roster of competitive and cooperative space projects -- from
remote sensing and rockets-for-hire to a range of satellite navigation and telecommunications services.
But after four decades of development, is the promise of a booming commercial space sector more high hope than
profitable, bottom-line marketplace?
Big win
NASA Administrator
Daniel Goldin opened the symposium Tuesday, taking to task the naysayers who have derided the building of the International Space Station (ISS).
"The ISS team across the world...are pulling it off," Goldin said. With some 135,000 pounds (61,360 kilograms) of ISS hardware now in orbit, the launch of
the first live-in crew is about a week away, he said.
Once the three-person
Expedition 1 crew is aboard, "that will mark the moment the human species will always have permanent presence in space. And that is the big win for the ISS team," Goldin said. "Sixteen countries on the face of this planet have determined it’s going to happen...so it shall," he told the audience.
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Stern warning
Goldin chided space industry officials by saying that they need to look at the space station as a research and test platform for commercial ideas.
Most aerospace firms have focused too much on station operations, Goldin said, and are not thinking of visionary and entrepreneurial ways to best use the orbiting complex.
"We'd like to be able to turn over the keys of the space station to a private corporation, if some of my dear NASA colleagues will have the courage to let that happen."
In particular, the NASA chief pointed to a number of promising biological and medical experiments done in microgravity. Follow-on work on the space station could foster such things as new agricultural products, antibiotics, improved insulin formation and a range of pharmaceuticals, he said.
The key to the space future, Goldin emphasized, is in aerospace companies that embrace biology, nanotechnology and information systems.
Goldin also unleashed a stern warning for his NASA compatriots.
"We’d like to be able to turn over the keys of the space station to a private corporation, if some of my dear NASA colleagues will have the courage to let that happen," he said.
"Survival of the NASA organization is not dependent upon hugging the space station. So this is a message to my dear colleagues at NASA. Don’t be afraid of the private sector," Goldin said.
Hot-button issue
The International Space Symposium’s opening day included a range of panel discussions.
Addressed was the hot-button issue that seems to be the obsession of aerospace executives since March 1999. That is when authority for satellite export licensing was shifted from the Commerce Department to the State Department.
A panel of industry officials addressing the commercialization and globalization of space business raised concerns about the licensing issue by pointing out that U.S. satellite manufacturers have captured less than half the publicly announced contracts for geostationary satellites this year.
For the previous 10 years, U.S. satellite manufacturers had dominated the competition by capturing about 75 percent of the world market.
The loss in market share has alarmed the satellite industry, prompting some to call for regulatory changes that include the shift of licensing responsibility back to the U.S. Commerce Department.
Troubles with China
Congress passed a law in 1998 that returned control over all satellite technologies to the U.S. State Department in March 1999. Members of Congress believed the legislation would guard against the transfer of sensitive U.S. launch technology to the People's Republic of China and other governments.
When asked by the panel moderator what area of the world has been the most troublesome for satellite business, half the panelists said that China was a particularly difficult market to penetrate.
China by far is the most difficult region, said Mark Albrecht, president of International Launch Services. His company markets the Russian-built Proton booster and the Lockheed Martin Astronautics-built Atlas launcher.
Interestingly enough, it was the Italians who said that the United States was the most difficult market. It takes so long to get the smallest part approved, said a spokesman for Alenia Aerospazio, one of Europe's largest space industries and the prime contractor on all programs managed by the Italian Space Agency.
Aerospace companies have been clamoring to enter China’s market as the economy in Asia has started to recover.
Last month, the U.S. Congress granted China permanent normal trade status, clearing a major obstacle to China’s bid to become a member of the World Trade Organization.
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