Pandemic will boost US government role in space sector

Subject

COVID-19 and the US space industry

Significance

The COVID-19 lockdown has disrupted operations at NASA, the Space Force and the large, established aerospace contractors, but had a far more serious effect on the start-ups and smaller firms on which investors and the US government have pinned their hopes.

Impacts

• The US space industry’s move towards a market-based model will come under pressure as government support becomes more important.
• Many small, innovative firms dependent on venture capital are likely to fail as funding dries up in a depressed global economy.
• Prestige projects, especially US and Chinese human spaceflight programmes, will retain political favour as national morale boosters.