Space Technology and the Space Economy

Space became an infrastructure industry before most people noticed. The commercially important activity today is not exploration but communications, positioning, timing and Earth observation — services that quietly underpin agriculture, logistics, finance and climate monitoring.

This section follows launch economics and reusability, constellation networks, Earth observation and its data uses, in-space manufacturing and servicing, human spaceflight programmes and lunar plans.

Long-run scenarios — permanent lunar facilities, industrial-scale in-space manufacturing — are labelled as scenarios, not forecasts.