Location
Holiday Inn, Manatee Rooms A & B
Start Date
23-4-1991 2:00 PM
End Date
23-4-1991 5:00 PM
Description
Historically, the private sector's involvement in space-related commercial activities has been primarily in the fields of communications and, to a lesser degree, remote sensing and launch systems. But today there are other opportunities for space-oriented, profit-making activities. The provision of commercial infrastructure -- hardware and related integration services to support industrial research and product development activities -- is a potential revenue-producing industry.
The National Space Council defines five principal areas of commercial space activity satellite communications, space transportation, remote sensing, materials processing, and commercial infrastructure. This paper, in discussing commercial infrastructure, also addresses commercial space transportation (launch services). Discussed are private sector initiatives directed toward establishing a commercial space sector in the fields of commercial space transportation, upper stages, payload processing, launch facilities, and other facilities and equipment. Not discussed, but recognized as important elements of commercial space infrastructure, are the legal, financial, and insurance industries. Also not included in this paper are private-sector initiatives for financing projects primarily for government use where the government controls the design, development, and management of the project and repays the private sector entity for its initial financial investment.
Paper Session I-C - Commercial Space Infrastructure: Giving Industry a Lift
Holiday Inn, Manatee Rooms A & B
Historically, the private sector's involvement in space-related commercial activities has been primarily in the fields of communications and, to a lesser degree, remote sensing and launch systems. But today there are other opportunities for space-oriented, profit-making activities. The provision of commercial infrastructure -- hardware and related integration services to support industrial research and product development activities -- is a potential revenue-producing industry.
The National Space Council defines five principal areas of commercial space activity satellite communications, space transportation, remote sensing, materials processing, and commercial infrastructure. This paper, in discussing commercial infrastructure, also addresses commercial space transportation (launch services). Discussed are private sector initiatives directed toward establishing a commercial space sector in the fields of commercial space transportation, upper stages, payload processing, launch facilities, and other facilities and equipment. Not discussed, but recognized as important elements of commercial space infrastructure, are the legal, financial, and insurance industries. Also not included in this paper are private-sector initiatives for financing projects primarily for government use where the government controls the design, development, and management of the project and repays the private sector entity for its initial financial investment.
Comments
Commercial Space Development
Session Chairman: Edward A. O’Connor, Director, Spaceport Florida Authority, Cocoa Beach, FL
Session Organizer: George Mosakowski, NASA, Kennedy Space Center, FL