The Geopolitics of Space - The Economy of Space: Evolution and Forecast

The Istituto Affari Internazionali, in collaboration with Intesa Sanpaolo, has launched a series of three workshops titled “The Geo-Finance of Space”. This series aims at investigating how the space race is impacting the geopolitics, the world economy and the international legal regime. The second event of this series is focused on the economy of space and it will present and discuss the paper “The Global Space Economy: Definition, Evolution and Forecasts” by Jules Varma, Research Fellow at the ESPI, and Rodolfo Zontini, Consultant for Space and Aviation at Logos Public Affairs.

The space economy has become a topic of increased focus in the past decade, notably due to renewed interest and ambition shown by both established and more recent spacefaring nations. A series of technological innovations coupled with the emergence of “New Space” have enabled space companies to explore new markets and business models that many believe will constitute a factor of significant growth for the space sector in the coming decades. Furthermore, the development of the Internet of Things (IoT) and the growth of non-terrestrial networks – notably, in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) – is expected to drive the growth in demand for space-based data in the years to come. The combination of these factors has led some to estimate that the space economy will be valued at $1 trillion in 2040.