The private sector to conquer space
Audio 03:51
The Starship SN10 prototype rocket developed by SpaceX, during a test in Texas on March 3, 2021. © AFP
By: Dominique Baillard Follow
8 mins
French astronaut Thomas Pesquet completes the final preparations before his departure for the International Space Station (ISS) scheduled for Thursday, April 22.
Space X, Elon Musk's company, provides transport.
From now on, the involvement of the private sector has become essential in the conquest of space.
Publicity
Space X is the very first private company to be given this mission by NASA.
And that's just the beginning.
She was selected by the American agency to make the next trips to the Moon while her machine is still not operational.
His boss, Elon Musk, was a pioneer.
It won at NASA with a better value for money and the competitors rushed into the breach.
Amazon boss Jeff Bezos has developed his own spacecraft with the company Blue Origin.
Richard Branson (Virgin) has also embarked on space tourism with the company Virgin Galactic.
How are these companies created by billionaires making a difference in the space industry?
They are only the emerging part of the new space tech, the most publicized.
This market has doubled in the space of 15 years, it amounts to more than 400 billion dollars and it could triple in the next ten years according to the Morgan Stanley bank.
It therefore attracts a myriad of startups, especially American ones.
The most promising are already raising billions of dollars on the stock market.
And their ambitions are changing the relationship with the big space agencies.
From now on, these companies are no longer mere service providers, at the service of these agencies, but actors with independent projects.
In Israel, it is a completely privately funded startup that is preparing to return to the Moon where its first attempt failed in 2019.
The conquest of space, become the new gold rush?
A literal gold rush. The prospect of discovering gold, lithium or cobalt in our universe makes space entrepreneurs fantasize. We are still light years away from mining on asteroids and for the moment they are focusing on more realistic activities: satellite launches and space travel, tourism still reserved for the ultra-rich. Companies are attracted to space because they see it as a new source of growth. They are also developing projects for NASA, several American companies are working on private space stations that could take over from the international space station where Thomas Pesquet is about to spend six months, when it has reached its official expiration date, that is to say very quickly,in 2028.
NASA and its peers, dispossessed of their prerogatives by these private actors?
The American agency, like its state rivals, is still in a largely dominant position. 80 to 90% of funding for the space industry remains public. And it remains an especially American adventure. As demonstrated by the very first flight on the planet Mars that NASA carried out on Monday with its Ingenuity helicopter. The emergence of the private sector makes it possible to accelerate the space conquest program by reducing costs. A bit like the injection of public funding allowed pharmaceutical companies to accelerate the discovery of the anti-Covid vaccine. But it remains a state-dominated conquest with clearly understood military interests: who today controls the satellites in the sky has the means to win the war on Earth. VS'It is to ensure their sustainability on the blue planet that States and their agencies are setting out again to assault the universe.
IN SHORT
The social network Parler, very popular with American conservatives, is once again authorized by Apple
This application was suspended after the invasion of the Capitol in early January.
Because it did not moderate enough erroneous content posted by extremists.
Google and Amazon had done the same.
Before its exclusion from the Appstore Parler claimed 20 million members.
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