“The growing role of commercial companies in the space economy was shown by the Virgin Orbit launch on 9th January as part of the Start Me Up Mission. The mission will carry satellites from seven customers to space, which will have both commercial and military use. This launch is a great example of the growing commercial opportunities in space and the role of the private sector in this. The world is becoming ever more connected. There is more and more data being transferred. Video-calls, E-Commerce, Video Gaming, Internet-of-things, self-driving cars, Artificial Intelligence. All these applications do and will devour loads of data. In addition to terrestrial infrastructure, space offers a way to transfer data via satellites. This is the key economic driver of space technology currently. But interestingly, one of the satellites will be launched on behalf of Space Forge, which ultimately aims to make use of zero gravity and extreme temperatures in space to produce materials and components such as semi-conductors, showing the breadth of commercial space opportunities.”
To find out more about the space economy theme, read the latest Monthly Report from Procure Space UCITS ETF (YODA) here. Andrew Chanin, manager of YODA, is available for interviews and further comment.