Small and medium enterprises shooting for the stars: what matters, besides size, in outer space economy?

Abstract

Abstract The popular mindset and widespread narrative, at least until not so long ago, was that in outer space affairs the fiefdom belongs, politically and economically, to governments and big businesses. An array of alliances between few states and their privileged partners from the corporate world constituted the highly exclusivist space ecosystem. Little room was supposed to be available to non-full-fledged spacefaring nations and enterprises originated from them, a configuration furthermore jammed by the fact that international agreements – i.e., the “Outer Space Treaty” (1967) an the “Moon Treaty” (1979) – seem to be rather dismissive of extensive exploitation of celestial bodies, adding to the already prohibitive costs of such endeavours if legitimized. Devoted mainly to scientific exploration paired with exploitation only of planetary proximities – viz., the large satellite population orbiting the Earth, with their support and serviced industries, all estimated at half a trillion dollars –, the space economy, in its high-tech dimension, steadily democratized itself, becoming more competitive, and collaborative too, opening up to small and medium enterprises (SMEs), many coming from emerging spacefaring nations. The literature covering SMEs contribution to the development of the space economy is on track of consolidation, as the process itself is unfolding, with data covering only the most powerful space players (e.g., US, EU). Valuable insights are added starting from the common wisdom that institutions (channelling economic information and incentives) are the main drivers in space development, rather than business size, even more in a competitive- collaborative global economy. A case study is dedicated to the Romanian experience (that of a relatively new and little player in European/global space affairs). A conclusion is that in an economy of unbounded creativity and borderless capital, visionary enterprises, big or small, fit even into the space industry value chains, if a pro-market, pro-business climate is secured.