4 ms·

Boom, how many people are in space?

• Symmetry 7y ago
  Only about five people. But there's also an economy almost unrelated to those people that brings in $330,000,000,000 a year via satellites of various sorts. And if more of the internet starts getting routed through LEO that number is likely to go up a lot.
  • Retric 7y ago
    Satellites and rockets have a lot of regulation. SpaceX for example needed FCC approval before launching test satellites for it’s internet project. Satellites seem largely unregulated because they impact such a small number of things. It’s not not like the FDA is relevant when it’s all photons being sent back and forth.
    • Rebelgecko 7y ago
      >Satellites seem largely unregulated Also, because when a company like Swarm launches even after their licenses are denied, all they get is a slap on the wrist.
    • Symmetry 7y ago
      There are a lot of regulations but if you read the article it's about ways in which current regulation of space are proving inadequate.
  • e12e 7y ago
    Is that an actual statistic on the space economy? Do you have a source?
    • Rebelgecko 7y ago
      I've actually seen larger numbers, but that's probably ballpark Launch is the part of the space industry that gets the most consistent PR, but it's a relatively small piece of the pie. A rocket launch may cost $50-300 million, but the payload on that rocket may have cost billions to design and build. One source for $385 billion in 2017: https://www.uschamber.com/series/above-the-fold/the-space-economy-industry-takes https://www.uschamber.com/series/above-the-fold/the-space-ec... Source for $330-350 billion: https://spacenews.com/a-trillion-dollar-space-industry-will-require-new-markets/ https://spacenews.com/a-trillion-dollar-space-industry-will-...
• mindviews 7y ago
  https://www.howmanypeopleareinspacerightnow.com/ https://www.howmanypeopleareinspacerightnow.com/