Sunday, March 20, 2011

Messages For A Newborn Baby

The space business

One of the recurring themes of the conquest of space is the role which trade initiative in the future. But we seem to forget a detail is that the private space industry generates and benefits today. That's why this report the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration ) on the U.S. commercial space transportation is very interesting to understand the scope of the space business in 2010.


How much is gained by launching satellites? (Roskosmos).

A total of 74 launches that took place in 2010, only 23 (31%) were commercial. As we discussed here , last year Russia was the country that conducted more launches, but also was the number one trade missions. During 2010 Russia carried out 13 commercial launches, which constitutes 57% of the total. Next we have to Europe and the United States, with 26% and 17% of commercial takeoffs respectively. The other space powers (China, Japan and India) did not perform any trade mission last year.




number of commercial launches in the world (FAA).



All commercial launches of 2010 (FAA).


orbital launches of the past five years (FAA).


commercial releases of the last five years, depending of the orbit. Most were geostationary (FAA).

If instead of releases we look at the number of satellites into orbit, Russia once again heads the list, but the difference with Europe declines. This is because each Ariane 5 usually carry two satellites per mission. In 2010 it put into orbit spacecraft 44 commercial launches, of which 31 provide payment services (the others were satellites belonging to government organizations). About half of these vehicles -21 - were geostationary satellites.


satellites and spacecraft into orbit in 2010 (FAA).




Satellite launched in 2010 by country (FAA).


Releases authorized by the FAA (FAA).


Releases authorized by the FAA in recent years (FAA).

But go to the heart of the matter. How much money generated space launches in 2010? Well estimated 2.45 billion dollars , a 45 million increase over 2009. Of this amount, 1320 million dollars went to EU coffers, while 826 million ended up in the hands of Russian companies. Most of the profits of Russian launches were the company ILS (International Launch Services ), controlled by the Khrunichev company, maker of the Proton rocket. The U.S. had to settle with 307 million, split between Boeing, ULA (United Launch Alliance , a company formed by Boeing and Lockheed Martin), Orbital Sciences Corporation, SpaceX and USA (United Space Alliance , also formed by Boeing and Lockheed Martin). As a novelty, the FAA authorized in 2010 the re-entry spacecraft, the SpaceX Dragon capsule. Dragon must make several flights of supplies to the international space station under the COTS program / CCDev NASA.


Benefits commercial launches worldwide in 2010 (FAA).


Fee releases of the last five years per country (FAA).



Benefits commercial launches over the past five years (FAA). If

analyze the data, we can see that the number of commercial launches has remained fairly stable over the past five years, but the money of benefits has increased significantly. It is also clear that, as we know, the real business is in the geostationary satellites in low orbit no. But the money spent by NASA in recent years within the COTS program / CCDev for flights to the ISS has slightly changed this picture.

In any case, the net benefits of the private space sector are not particularly impressive, especially when you consider the enormous cost of developing launch vehicles and related infrastructure. Hardly can maintain a complex space program with these figures. The exception to this scenario constitute Russia and Europe. In the first case, the low cost of labor and technological heritage of the former USSR can get a good return on business operations. In the European case, the monopoly of Arianespace implies that all the money raised at commercial releases goes to the same pockets, unlike what happens in Russia or the United States.


Americans Launchers 2010 (FAA).


Russian Launchers 2010 (FAA).


Launchers around the world in 2010 (FAA).

References:

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