What is commercial Space?
You may have heard the term Commercial Space when Virgin Galactic become public and opened on the stock market as SPCE. A simplistic way to define commercial space is when a private company that uses space as a means to provide their services—for example, television, phones, and GPS.
Why should you start learning about commercial space? Because the industry is huge! From the FAA, “The global space economy, consisting of private industry revenues and government budgets, was $345B in 2016.” and out of that “About $261B (76%) was revenue generated by companies providing services like television; mobile, fixed, and broadband communications; remote sensing; satellite systems and ground equipment manufacturing and sales; and, of course, launch services.” (FAA AST,2018)
Understanding the Big Picture
The image above can give us an inclination that satellite companies may be worth investing in. With cellphone companies working on 5g service, it is worth looking at who is making their satellites and how many they are making. By looking at the suppliers of these companies, you may be able to figure out when their stock price will go up. If you know when they are launching, you can expect new services from these companies soon after and try to predict an increase in their sales. Make sure to look out for whatever company you are looking at competitors are doing. Being first plays a more significant role in commercial space than being the best.
The Bottom Line
Here’s a quick guide in what to look for when researching a company
- When are they launching?
- What orbit are they launching to?
- What band are they using?
- Do they have the authorization to use bandwidth?
- Who is paying for it?
- How many satellites?
Answering these questions will give you a good idea of how serious a company is about launching and if their stock price could go up soon.
With more companies entering the commercial space industry, it is important to start building knowledge now rather than trying to catch up later!