The Future of Space is Now: Why All Companies Need a Space Strategy

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

Over 20 years ago, companies stumbled to launch their online presence. At the same time, the private space industry was on the launchpad fueled by public sector contracts.

This was the catalyst that made space-related businesses possible. The writing was on the wall, but few noticed.

Companies like Spire Global recognized that writing and built a value chain atop the wall, making space accessible for everyone. While some industries failed to anticipate and adapt to the future, Spire's modus operandi has not only been to anticipate but actively build the future. In many tangible ways, it is built. The future is here.

Rather than looking outward to space as an escape from Earth's challenges, companies like Spire are leveraging space to help solve some of Earth's most urgent problems.

The Writing on the Wall.

Looking at similar technological paradigm shifts, in the early 2000s, businesses were tasked with creating an online presence. With no tools built or tested, many brick-and-mortar shops lumbered online.

The advent of products like Amazon Web Services was a gateway that rocketed the establishment of e-commerce. Consequently, businesses gained entry to operate globally without the expense of maintaining a physical presence. In 2022, Amazon accounted for nearly $2 in every $5 spent online in the U.S., according to eMarketer.

A similar transformation continues to unfold in newsrooms. The necessity to be first to report a story in a digital age rendered many newspapers obsolete.

With few pre-built solutions to be first and fastest, newsrooms grapple to find their way online. Diving head-first into social media and subscription-based models - arguably, neither a fix-all - has led to many shortcomings. Both avenues drove the search for new tools and sprouted alternative news sources.

The shift from VHS to DVD and on to streaming services caused the same upheavals. Not having a plan isn't sufficient, lest you become the Blockbuster Video of your industry. The streaming industry, now valued at $372 billion (as per Fortune Business Insights), surges ahead.

The Future is Here.

Two decades later, depending on terrestrial data amounts to relying on yesterday's news. Nothing made this clearer than a global pandemic.

When travel and trade flatlined, eyes on the ground were either unreliable or non-existent. Almost immediately, every industry - global and local - was impacted.

Irrespective of industry, investments, or daily plans, the world is now remarkably interconnected. Global events from severe weather to cargo congestion draw us closer together. While the Internet brings the world to our doorstep, space serves as a conduit connecting us more intimately to the tangible realities of our surroundings.

While private sector rockets make accessing space possible, the capabilities-per-kilogram of satellites has grown tenfold every five years, reducing the cost of building space technology and enabling many new use cases.

In the last 10 years, Spire created an accessible, ready-to-use constellation of Earth-observing satellites in space. With over 100 Low Earth Multi-Use Receiver (LEMUR) satellites in orbit, Spire's Earth observing coverage is near real-time and extends globally.

For industries that spent two decades building a global profile online, Spire's LEMUR constellation future-proofs and taps into a much greater total addressable market.

At the World Economic Forum in Davos this year, the burgeoning future of space-based businesses was top of mind. The global management consulting firm McKinsey values the space market at $447 billion this year and on track to exceed $1 trillion by 2030.

Sensor technology, satellite research and development, rocket launches, orbital paths - the barriers to entry into space may seem astronomical. They're not.