Private investors push down stratospheric cost of space start-ups
On a muggy summer's day in London two years ago, the rapper will.i.am, Virgin billionaire Sir Richard Branson and Airbus chief executive Tom Enders gathered in the 200-year-old lecture theatre of the Royal Institution. In this temple to scientific achievement, Michael Faraday first demonstrated electromagnetism, Sir Humphry Davy revealed sodium and Sir Joseph John (JJ) Thomson unveiled a fundamental particle now known as an electron.
From article, (Early next year, OneWeb, founded by tech entrepreneur Greg Wyler, expects to launch the first 10 satellites in a constellation that will eventually number some 648 spacecraft — set to be the world’s largest satellite constellation if all goes to plan.
Despite having no operating satellites, OneWeb has been able to raise more than $1.5bn in the last two years from companies as diverse as SoftBank, the Japanese telecoms group, US chipmaker Qualcomm, the European aerospace group Airbus, Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin and even Coca-Cola.
Interest in the commercial opportunities of space is snowballing and, with it, the prospects for start-ups to find financial backers.
space — which institutions once considered far too risky and expensive except for the big satellite operators — is becoming “a more normal area [in which] to invest. Appetite across the board from investors continues to grow”.
Investor interest is being driven by a recognition that the costs of going into space are falling.
The arrival of entrants such as SpaceX into a market once dominated by entities with a strong hold on access to government-backed launches is forcing down launch costs by as much as 75 per cent.)
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