Financial Infrastructure For Space

Establishing any new industry is challenging, and establishing a commercial space industry will have more obstacles to overcome than most.  Among those challenges is the creation of a finamcial infrastructure that can captialize, support, and insure companies engaged in space operations.

Working in space is demanding and dangerous-- and making profits doing it will be a real trick.  Arranging financial resources to allow a company to function effectively and insure itself against potential disaster will be as important to putting the emerging NewSpace industry on its feet as the creation of a new technology.  Technology development, after all, requires funding.

The few minutes after launch is probably the most critical time for a commercial space company.  That's when a rocket can go off course and destroy property, and potentially injure and kill innocent people.  Insurance policies will pay damages only to a point, so Congress passed a law in 1988 that put the government behind the insurance companies to cover damages above the insurance limit.  The idea was to support a domestic launch industry, and the law has been renewed a few times since.  It's up for renewal again this year, and the industry and the FAA are seeking another five-year extension.  During that period, commrcial space could well finally begin to boom.

Whether Congress will pass the extension is still open to question.