NEWSPACE
The term “NewSpace” evolved from “alt.space,” first used in the 1980’s to identify the alternative space community that was attempting to conduct space activity in a considerably different manner from NASA and its contractors. This is the emerging commercial space industry, the antithesis of the decades-old civil space program we know as NASA and its large contractors like Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and so forth. Today, this is primarily entrepreneurs and small- or medium-size firms with these characteristics:
- Space-related products and services sold from a fixed-price catalog (versus the traditional space industry’s cost-plus government procurement model)
- Customers include individual consumers and other non-government entities, as well as civil and government entities
- The company is funded primarily by the owner(s), angel investors, and/or venture capital
- A significant portion of the company’s revenue is earned from non-government entities
While many entrepreneurs and companies easily fit these criteria, others exist in that gray area between NewSpace and traditional aerospace. Therefore, labeling a company as “NewSpace” is sometimes more art than science.
