Shake out or shake down?
Now facing the global space community is an identity crisis, said Ray Williamson, a space policy analyst at George Washington Universitys Space Policy Institute.
"Government and industry, especially in the United States, has a problem in figuring out how those two roles work with each other," Williamson said. "Then you have the question of how the U.S. government is going to cooperate with other nations that have different laws, regulations and different customs about how they work with industry," he said.
"Its a very complicated situation. Frankly, the governments and private industry are at this point trying to figure these issues out on a global scale," Williamson said.
Space leaders at the symposium appear unified in one view. They find themselves in a new world where globalization makes a big difference.
Williamson said that not only in the United States, but also worldwide, military involvement with private companies is taking place in areas once thought the domain of civilian enterprise.
Slow-going ship of State
The problem with the global space industry is lack of speed, said Scott Sacknoff, president of the International Space Business Council in Arlington, Virginia.
What could change that are pushes into the commercial marketplace by China and India, said Sacknoff. Whether or not the U.S. government lets people in the United States do business with China and India is another matter, he said.
"Youre going to have competitors in launch vehicles and new competitors in satellite manufacturing, at economies that dont equate to Western economies. In theory, that could reduce some of the overall costs," Sacknoff said.
Sacknoff said that aerospace will be less competitive as long as the U.S. Department of State stays involved in okaying country-to-country working relationships.
"An agency that is afraid of a topic should not be responsible for it," Sacknoff said.
European makeover
A major development has been the merging of industrial firms around the world. In addition, space agencies themselves are now looking to better coordinate into one network agency.
Sergio De Julio, president of the Italian Space Agency, said that agencies are working internationally in order to support bigger programs. On the other hand, nations are also developing their own industries so they can get their share of space business.
Alain Bensoussan, president of the Centre National dEtudes Spatiales (CNES) in France said that the European Space Agency has been tasked to work with the European Union to develop a common European space strategy.
The strengthening of Europes space industrial base is evidenced by the creation of Astrium. It is a new company formed by the merger of Matra Marconi Space and the space divisions of DaimlerChrysler Aerospace.
Astrium is the first tri-national space company and is the spearhead of European integration. Its goal is to create the European leader in space, increasing market share through improvements in competitiveness.
Partnerships are being formed with both civil and military customers in Earth observation, telecommunications, orbital infrastructure, science, navigation and launchers.
Karl Doetsch, president of the International Space University, said that the International Space Station has sparked strong bonds between those countries working on the project.
"Cooperation between world space agencies have been advanced very significantly. The space station has forced everybody to work together. Its really an intercultural mixing, and that has moved things forward quite a bit," Doetsch said.
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