This is according to a report prepared by the Space Foundation * Israel may be left behind
The total turnover of the global space industry in 2005 amounted to 180 billion dollars. This is according to the "Space Report" of the Space Foundation, an American non-profit institution that monitors the global space industry. In a comprehensive report that was recently published, a summary of global economic activity in the field of space is presented, which reached a turnover of 180 billion dollars in 2005. According to a CNN survey, eighty percent would like to fly into space even considering the risks, 20% would only want to fly into space if the flight was Completely safe, and 0% don't want to fly at all.
The Space Foundation even put together a new stock market index, the Space Index, consisting of the shares of 30 leading companies in the space field. Over the course of a year, from June 2005 to June 2006, this index beat the S&P index and the NASDAQ index by 2-3 percent, a fact that supports the words of analysts who claimed that space shares are a profitable investment avenue.
The revenues from commercial satellite services took a share of 80 billion dollars, with the variety of fields in which satellite services are applied constantly increasing. In addition to satellite TV services, there are also satellite radio services and broadband services. Beyond that, in 2005 a completely new field was opened - geoinformatics, linking, analysis and automatic processing of information from satellite photographs and GPS data, which enable the provision of a variety of innovative information, navigation and communication services. For example, sophisticated agriculture based on analyzing the state of the crops according to their spectral signature in satellite images, and automatically directing appropriate resources to that end (such as irrigation if necessary).
The really interesting part of the report deals with a young industry - space tourism services. Although this young industry only operated in a volume of a few tens of millions of dollars in 2005, a massive expansion is already expected with the entry of several companies into the field. Richard Branson's company Virgin Galactic already has more than 150 customers who (as of the end of 2005) have deposited $200,000 on the account of a short suborbital flight in space, to win a dream come true and win the experience of zero weight. Spaceports are planned by the company Space Adventures in Singapore and the United Arab Emirates, not to mention several countries in the US with similar projects. This new industry is gaining a lot of attention following a new survey published as part of the "CNN Future Conference", according to which 80% would like to fly into space even considering the risks, 20% would only want to fly into space if the flight was completely safe, and 0% would not Want to fly at all.
Another economic field is the "spin-off", many technologies that are developed for the space industry and move to other fields of industry. In 2005, about 70 such technologies were successfully transferred, in the fields of medicine, materials science, telecommunications, etc. Each such successful transfer constitutes an additional economic catalyst and creates income, additional jobs, additional services, and more.
Governments invested 67 billion dollars this year in the field of space, of which the USA with the lion's share, 57 billion. These investments were directed to research and development, infrastructures, satellites and satellite-based services, both in the military and civilian fields.
"The space industry will generate ever-increasing profits in the coming years, and private companies all over the world understand this and are investing the necessary sums to prepare for the commercial competition on the space tourism market. In the next decade we will already see hotels in space where rich couples will spend their honeymoon" says Tal Inbar, chairman of the Israel Space Association and senior researcher at the Fisher Institute for Air and Space Research. "Many space companies operate in Israel and generate income for the economy and jobs, even among private businessmen investing in space shares is becoming a profitable trend, and capitalists are finding out details about private flights to space. The problem is that the government still invests tiny amounts in space research and development, and the Israel Space Agency's budget is a few million shekels per year."
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