“I visited South Africa on a work trip last month, and am planning to tour France with my family later this year.” Let us pause and consider how nondescript the above sentence sounds to anyone reading it today. If we had encountered that statement in the 1800s, however, my travels across continents for work and leisure would sound near miraculous. While it is true national borders were already porous at that time, someone living in 19th century Singapore would have to spend approximately 40 days on board a steamship to travel to France – a gruelling passage. Leisurely travel between far-flung places was simply out of the question. It was only with the invention of the aeroplane that international travel took flight, with the global tourism industry reaching USD15.5tn by 2033, according to the World Travel & Tourism Council. Commercial aviation, in other words, helped a completely new industry take off. A similar revolution looks to be happening today. Between 1982 to 2020, the cost of launching spaceships plummeted around 98% thanks to the invention of reusable rockets. This has lowered the barriers to entry to the space industry, drumming up healthy interest in it in recent years. Indeed, the space economy is already valued at USD546bn in 2022, and is expected to grow 41% to reach USD772bn by 2027, according to The Space Report. When commercial spaceflight becomes viable, space tourism is only the start of the industry’s journey. From more prosaic applications like the proliferation of position, navigation, and timing services (such as GPS), to the more futuristic like in-space manufacturing and mining for resources, our destinations are limited only by our imagination. In this CIO Vantage Point, we look at how the space economy has evolved, which companies are strapped in and ready for take-off, and why a future in space is the new reality for humanity. Enjoy the read as we explore the outermost reaches of this universe together.
Hou Wey Fook, CFA Chief Investment Officer
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