There is also room for Danish companies in space

This article was published in Mandag Morgen on November 30, 2023 [in Danish]

On the border to Mexico, just outside the Texan city of Brownsville, a piece of world history is under construction. Here, a mix of 1,800 Mexican migrant workers and American engineers are developing the world's largest rocket, Starship, which was tested in a trial launch for the second time in November.

Starship will be a fully reusable rocket, standing at 121 meters, more than three times the height of Rundetårn in Copenhagen, Denmark. It is designed to transport up to 150 tons of cargo or a crew of 100 people into space.

Once, it was the national space agencies like NASA that drove the development of space travel. Today, it is primarily the booming private industry that builds rockets, establishes networks of thousands of satellites, sells images and data, or sends tourists into space. The space industry is also growing in Denmark.

Elon Musk's SpaceX Starbase in Texas is just one of the many places in the USA where the private space industry is experiencing rapid development. In Houston, space companies like Intuitive Machines, Axiom Space, and Boeing, among others, have positioned themselves in the city's new Spaceport, located near the Johnson Space Center, where Denmark’s Andreas Mogensen works as an ESA astronaut.

In California, one can find SpaceX's headquarters in Los Angeles and launch facilities at Vandenberg Space Force Base. A few hours' drive north in Silicon Valley, one can find one of NASA's largest and oldest research facilities, Ames Research Center, located in the epicenter of innovation worldwide.

In Florida, at the Kennedy Space Center, you can spot Blue Origin logos on the large halls where rockets are prepared, as far as the eye can see. This is where Jeff Bezos is working on his space business, which, like SpaceX, has a mission to build the vessels and technologies that will enable people to live, work, and travel in space.

Reagan broke NASA's monopoly

The development of the private space economy in the USA is largely driven by the shift in NASA's strategy that began in the mid-1980s with President Ronald Reagan's signature on the so-called 'Commercial Space Launch Act.' The law allowed private entities to launch spacecraft, opening space exploration to a variety of new players competing on commercial terms.

Subsequently, the initiation of a slow retirement process of the classic Space Shuttle orbiters, which flew for the last time in 2011, followed. In the decades that followed, NASA shifted from developing and launching rockets itself to contracting with private companies to handle those tasks.

This transition helped free up NASA's resources to focus on the next frontiers in space exploration, including establishing a permanent presence on the Moon, missions to Mars, and asteroid exploration.

The strategic shift has also contributed to stimulating the development of the currently very potent and innovative private space industry in the USA, an industry experiencing exponential growth.

New Space Economy

Several analyses indicate that the market for the global space industry and associated ecosystems reached $500 billion in 2023 and may grow to $1 trillion by 2030.

According to the World Economic Forum, there are more than 10,000 space companies and around 5,000 investors globally in this field. The USA is by far the leading investor in the development of the space industry, solidifying its status as the world's leading spacefaring nation year after year.

Data from 2021 shows that the USA invested about six times as much in the space industry as China, which ranks second.

Initially, the private space economy will be driven by the enormous commercial opportunities in Low Earth Orbit, the low orbit around Earth extending up to 2,000 kilometers into space.

This is where most communication and observation satellites are placed, as well as the International Space Station (ISS), located only 408 kilometers above Earth's surface. For comparison, GPS satellites, for example, are positioned 10,000-20,000 kilometers in space, and geostationary satellites are around 35,000 kilometers away.

What could be termed ‘The Satellite Economy’ already forms the backbone of global finance, TV, communication, and navigation systems, among others.

According to the UN, there were 11,330 satellites in orbit around Earth in June 2023. This number is expected to grow to 60,000 by 2030. Elon Musk's Starlink alone has approximately 5,000 satellites in orbit and plans to increase this number to 12,000 in the near future, with long-term plans for up to 42,000 satellites.

The applications of satellites for monitoring and communication, for example, are increasing, while the costs of launching them into space are rapidly decreasing. This enables a wide range of future developments.

Satellite data and data networks will be crucial elements in areas such as smart cities, precision agriculture, improved traffic management, internet connectivity in remote areas, the internet of things, and more.

Public authorities will increasingly be able to use space data, for example, in regulating climate, environment, and energy systems, thereby supporting the green transition on Earth.

These applications of space technology for use on Earth are called 'Space-for-Earth Applications.'

However, there are also significant opportunities for the private sector in applications located in space – these are called 'Space-for-Space Applications.'

With falling prices, it could become realistic, for example, for pharmaceutical companies to establish laboratories in space, where cell research can be conducted in a weightless environment, providing new insights into biological processes.

Microchip manufacturers will also have the opportunity to move production into space. When SpaceX's enormous Starship comes into full operation, it will be possible to establish manufacturing facilities in space that leverage the natural vacuum to produce microchips using new thin-layer techniques without the use of gas.

Denmark is on board

In February of this year, Innovation Centre Denmark in Silicon Valley visited Houston, Texas, with a large Danish delegation of space companies and researchers. It was the largest Danish business promotion in the space sector ever, with 30 participating companies and researchers, highlighting that the development has also reached Denmark.

From the American side, there was significant attendance and interest in the Danish companies and researchers, as well as the innovative solutions and technologies they have developed.

This includes companies like Danish Graphene, which has modified graphene so that the material's properties can be transferred to new products, including a special heat-conductive adhesive that can be used for components in space, where overheating is a significant challenge. Or Termas' autonomous digital Star Tracker camera, which can determine satellite orientation in a matter of seconds.

According to the latest statistics from 2018, Denmark's space industry consists of approximately 200 companies, many of them startups.

There is clearly potential for the Danish space industry, both due to a rapidly growing international market and a solid Danish knowledge base and industry. The Danish government has recently announced the need for an independent space strategy for research and innovation.

At Innovation Centre Denmark in Silicon Valley, plans are already underway for the next Danish space visit to the USA, scheduled for spring 2024. There will be a particular focus on the opportunities that space data provides for the green transition on Earth.