Publications
Publications
- February 12, 2021
- Harvard Business Review Digital Articles
The Commercial Space Age Is Here
By: Matt Weinzierl and Mehak Sarang
Abstract
In May of 2020, SpaceX made history as the first private company to send humans into space. This marks not only a tremendous technological achievement, but also the first indication that an entirely new “space-for-space” industry—that is, goods and services designed to supply space-bound customers—could be close at hand. In the first stage of this burgeoning economy, private companies must sell to NASA and other government customers, since today, those organizations are the only source of in-space demand. But as SpaceX has demonstrated, private companies now have not just the desire, but also the ability to send people into space. And once we have private citizens in space, SpaceX and other companies will be poised to supply the demand they’ve created, creating a market that could dwarf the current government-led space industry (and eventually, the entire terrestrial economy as well). It’s a huge opportunity—now our task is simply to seize it.
Keywords
Space Economy; New Markets; Emerging Markets; Opportunities; Entrepreneurship; Commercialization; Aerospace Industry
Citation
Weinzierl, Matt, and Mehak Sarang. "The Commercial Space Age Is Here." Harvard Business Review Digital Articles (February 12, 2021).
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