The plummeting cost of launching satellites is triggering an expansion in space exploration, said Olivier Bruslé, partner, advisory – operations consulting, at KPMG Lower Gulf.

“Space is new. In fact, there is a whole concept called new space,” commented Bruslé at the Bahrain International Air Show in November.

Cheaper launch of satellites

“It is new because firstly, the changes in the business model and players are enabling much cheaper launch of satellites.

“And this reduction of the cost enables a lot more players to be involved beyond the traditional big national agencies.

“That was mostly driven by NASA and the emergence that you saw of the three billionaires’ ventures.”

SpaceX

He added: “SpaceX for sure is a major game changer, enabling these smaller costs and a whole series of players to set up new satellites launch them and develop applications for the whole world.”

SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket launched on Sunday on a mission to deliver national security payloads for the US military.

The USSF-67 mission blasted off at 5:56 pm ET from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
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