Better ways of getting into the space business: microeconomic reform in Australian space affairs

This personal view of trends in global space enterprise suggests that, unless they adapt and re-structure, large-scale national and regionalspaceagenciesbuiltontraditionallinesmaystruggletosurvive,atleastinthedevelopedworld.Withthegrowingmaturityof speculativeprivatesector spaceinitiatives,the roleoftraditionalspaceagenciesas projectmanagersandmediatorsbetweenproviders and the market may become redundant, while in the absence of a cogent national security argument, public interest in space is no longer to be relied upon to deliver large national space budgets. Australia’s newest space mission, the FedSat scientific microsatellite, was announced at the same time as the former national space program was terminated. This process and its consequences are examinedas an instance of microeconomicreform, which seeksto improveproductivity and competitivenessby producing a regulatory and infrastructure environment that gives business more flexibility. Historical circumstances unique to Australia may have contributed to this change of direction, but many contributing elements also apply elsewhere. The features of the new approach are identificationofpublicsectorspaceneeds;selectingthemostsuitableteamfrombothpublicandprivatesectorstomanagetheproject; and the acceptance of a large proportion of the risk by the proponents. ( 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Space programs; Space missions; Economic impact; Planning; microsatellites