The 36th edition of the Space Symposium held at the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs from August 23-26, 2021 was the first major industry event to be held live since the start of the pandemic in 2020. Organizers estimated the attendance at between 7-8,000 from 25 countries who came to see a full slate of distinguished speakers in various panels and keynotes and 200 companies exhibiting on the show floor. With the exception of everyone required to wear a mask indoors, the show was much like the shows pre-pandemic with the usual receptions and networking activities.
As Colorado Springs is a major center for the defense industry, this year's edition of the Space Symposium, in keeping with previous editions, focused on the military market. This was the first Space Symposium since the formation of the US Space Force was signed into law in December 2019 and the conference program featured several sessions on the Space Force and its upcoming plans. US Space Force Chief of Operations General John "Jay" Raymond said in his address at the symposium that “Today, we have a single military service that is empowered with the same authorities as the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps, and under the direction of the Department of the Air Force, we have built the Space Force organizations and processes to take advantage of this,” he said.
Raymond also said that the Space Force has established the Space Warfighting Analysis Center to “identify a future force design, underpinned by world-class analysis to balance performance, cost, and resiliency.”
US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall in his keynote address said: “It is impossible to overstate the importance of space-based systems to national security,”
“Strategic stability depends on space-based reliable early warning and communications systems,” Kendall said. "I can assure you that this administration will continue the work of establishing, equipping, training, and sustaining the newly-formed Space Force and of increasing the resiliency of our essential space systems,” he added.
John Hill, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy, warned that “the growth of Chinese and Russian counterspace arsenals” is a serious threat to the space activities of the United States, its partners and allies."
“Chinese and Russian military doctrines indicate that they view space as critical to modern warfare and see the use of counterspace capabilities as both a means of reducing U.S. military effectiveness and for winning future wars,” Hill added.
The symposium also featured a panel on "LEO Constellations: New Technologies, Business Models and New Challenges" moderated by Chris Baugh of NSR which included Maj. Gen. Clinton Crosier, USSF (Ret.) Director, Aerospace and Satellite Solutions at Amazon Web Services; Mark Dankberg, Chairman, VIASAT; Chris Johnson, Senior Vice President of Space Programs Delivery at Maxar Technologies; Dr. Fred Kennedy, President, Momentus; Neil Masterson, CEO, OneWeb and Gwynne Shotwell, CEO, Spacex/Starlink. The speakers took turns in extolling the viability of their respective LEO systems both technically and financially and how LEOs will be driving growth in the satellite industry in this decade. The insatiable demand for broadband access will be fueling the deployment of LEO systems which has been accelerating at a rapid pace.
The Space Foundation, which is the main organizer of the Space Symposium, released its annual Space Report at the show. The report revealed that commercial space revenues grew 6.6% in 2020, exceeding US$356 Billion despite the global pandemic.
According to the report, infrastructure and support industries grew the most, by 16.4%, surpassing US$ 137 Billion. Products and services grew 1.2%, accounting for over 60% of commercial space.
More than 1,100 SmallSats launched in 2020, 92% of all spacecraft deployed. "This edition also takes a two-pronged look at recent shifts in small launch vehicle and SmallSat development. In addition to comprising 92% of all spacecraft deployed in 2020, an increase from only 27% a decade ago, SmallSats have more than doubled in average size over the same period. As such, small-lift launchers such as Rocket Lab are developing larger rockets, seeking to court the mega-constellation deployments and hundred-plus satellite rideshares of the past few years," according to the Space Foundation.
From the attendance and the number of exhibitors at the show, the overall outlook for the space industry was quite positive and upbeat. As the first live event in over a year, the Space Symposium was a good indicator of things to come for the space industry.
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Virgil Labrador is the Editor-in-Chief of Los Angeles, California-based Satellite Markets and Research which publishes a web portal on the satellite industry www.satellitemarkets.com, the monthly Satellite Executive Briefing magazine and occasional industry reports called MarketBriefs. Virgil is one of the few trade journalists who has a proven track record working in the commercial satellite industry. He worked as a senior executive for a teleport in Singapore, the Asia Broadcast Center, then-owned by the US broadcasting company CBS. He has co-authored two books on the history of satellite communications and satellite technology. He holds a Master’s in Communications Management from the University of Southern California (USC). He can be reached at virgil@satellitemarkets.com
