Space is hard, for many reasons, and building a successful company in this industry is doubly so.
You’ve heard all the important factors before, of course; launch costs, vacuum, radiation, temperature variations, funding, debris, traffic, government support and on and on – it’s not for the faint-hearted up there!
But those pioneering engineers and entrepreneurs who take these challenges head on have some amazing potential rewards to reach for.
Some estimates have put the space industry at $1 trillion by 2030 or $1.8 trillion by 2035. And while many dispute these headline-grabbing numbers, there’s no doubt that both significant profits and global impact are there to be made.
Of course, with great rewards come great competition. We’re seeing companies all over the world, at every level of the supply chain, bring new products, services, and operating models to market on a regular basis.
Startups are challenging existing players and even space agencies in some cases – increasingly commercializing and democratizing an industry that has almost been defined by being difficult to access in years past.
At the same time, new interoperable interfaces, software environments, hardware modules, and operational paradigms are enabling companies outside of the space industry to access it and compete for business with their existing products and services.
So, for any given supplier, is the space pie growing or shrinking?
And the answer is, of course, it depends.
It depends on:
- Your technical capabilities
- Your marketing capabilities
- The heritage of your portfolio
- The size, and growth rate, of your target customer segments
- The quality of your operation – from administration and customer service to mission execution
In essence – if you’re a good company, you do have a chance to win.
However, you can maximize that chance by not only being good, but also by being fast.
Have you got the need? The need for…
Speed is still underrated in the space industry, rightly or wrongly. One of the main criticisms you see levelled at so many companies and teams (yes, often unfairly) is that they’ve raised X million dollars but done nothing with it!
In many cases this is a problem of perception. Space is hard and great engineering takes time – particularly for the most ambitious missions and technologies, and even more particularly when humans are involved.
Suppliers need to tell their stories well enough, and with enough detail and transparency, for the market to understand that things are moving ahead in their projects and programs – but also that hard things take time.
However, there is simply no getting away from the fact that demonstrating a mission program that is both successful (to at least some degree) and moving ahead rapidly is an overwhelming positive in this industry.
We’ve all seen how SpaceX does it – creating a whole cult following around Starship development milestones. People inside and outside the industry constantly compare their speed of achievement with that of other launch providers and constellation developers.
Of course, launch vehicles are very public and easily understood technologies (at a conceptual level), which makes it easier to demonstrate and communicate progress. The SpaceX CEO is quite well-known too…
On the other hand, in the software world we’ve become so used to rapid iterations and new features or versions shipping out that it’s become mundane. In fact, sometimes we’re sceptical of releases that come too quickly; assuming they’ll be buggy or incomplete.
You can’t iterate as fast as a software company. And maybe you can’t iterate as fast as SpaceX.
But can you iterate fast enough to carve out a real slice of the industry for your company?
How to press the pedal
In practice, many aspects of a space mission or program will take as long as they take.
Certain tests and qualification processes, particularly if they are carried out in third-party facilities, have set timelines that can’t be sped up.
Launch timelines are also set in stone, as are government or agency funding schedules for public sector programs.
In most cases, none of these are areas where your team can gain an edge on the competition.
So, what can you do?
Engineer faster.
Build things at more rapid pace and you can speed up your mission timeline.
Now this sounds simple, but we all know it isn’t easy. Space technologies are complex systems with multiple trade-offs to be considered at every level.
Your team is (hopefully) working at capacity, deploying the resources you have available today effectively – so there’s no extra speed to be found there.
But what about your supply chain? What about sourcing and procurement?
In our work supporting more than 400 mission teams around the world, we’ve seen a huge number of examples of near-identical hardware with very different lead times from alternative suppliers (and there are big differences in costs too – sometimes an order of magnitude).
If you could cut lead times on the order of a few months down to the order of a few weeks – what would that do to your mission timeline?
It would mean you can build faster. Much faster.
And then you’d not only be able to demonstrate to the market that your mission program is moving ahead at pace, but your team would also gain vital experience at a faster rate than your competitors too.
Getting the materials, components, software, subsystems, and other resources that they need into your engineering team’s hands is crucial to maintaining momentum.
And that’s where satsearch comes in.
We know this industry inside out and we can help you efficiently find the most suitable supplier options for your mission – often in a matter of days.
Our global supply chain platform is used by thousands of space engineers every week to find new suppliers for their missions.
We have portfolio information, downloadable assets, and direct relationships with thousands of organizations around the world, in all areas of the industry, that can be leveraged to help you find options.
To get started, simply share a few details about your requirements with us here and we’ll go to work finding the most suitable suppliers.
So don’t slow down your success by sourcing in the old-fashioned way. Leverage our unique, and carefully curated supply chain platform and deep supplier contact networks to get what you need faster, more easily, and possibly at much lower costs.
Let’s accelerate your mission and build for Earth together!