Adapting to the changing face of the space race

During French President Emmanuel Macron’s official visit to Saudi Arabia last weekend, much attention focused on the geopolitical aspects of the high-level discussions. However, there was another important aspect: Space. The CEO of the Saudi Space Commission, Dr. Mohammed bin Saud Al-Tamimi, signed a cooperation agreement with Philippe Baptiste, his counterpart at the French National Center for Space Studies.

This agreement included strengthening the strategic partnership between the two sides and laying the foundations for cooperative activities in the peaceful use of space. The accord completes other steps the Saudi Space Commission has taken to facilitate the exchange of information and technologies, and contribute to capacity-building in the Kingdom. It is also the focus for development of public and private-sector activities to build up an attractive environment for investment in the space sector and the growth of its economy.

Regrettably, most headlines about space today portray the sector in a negative light — a game in which billionaires show off and waste resources that could be better directed to other, more worthy, projects and causes. This is a major misunderstanding of the opportunities, as well as challenges, that the “new space” is presenting. Space has become a key component for the security and the economy of every country and region. It simply cannot and should not be ignored.

There is obviously a geopolitical aspect to the development of innovation in space. From the beginning, it was perceived as an ideological and political competition between the US and the USSR — a way of highlighting the advances in research and discovery for each of the superpowers. Everyone knows of the famous “Sputnik moment.” And it is often said that the US anti-missile Strategic Defense Initiative played a key role in ending the Cold War, leaving the Soviet Union with a challenge that it was unable to meet due to its limited resources. The SDI never materialized, but it had the desired impact.

Yet, the story of space is not only about geopolitics, but also scientific discovery and economic development. Today, this industry is valued at more than $400 billion and is expected to be worth $1 trillion by 2040. If you watch the latest football matches live, it is thanks to the space and satellite industry. Moreover, without space and global positioning systems, you would be unable to use most of the applications on your smartphone. That is why space has shifted from solely a geopolitical competition to a commercial one as well.

One of the key points in the agreement and steps taken by the Saudi Space Commission is the empowerment of the private sector. This is an important and necessary action that can no longer be ignored. One could make a comparison with the rise of social media platforms. These companies today have full control over the entire supply chain of information and are acting as the main infrastructure, or utility company, for data. They have been left unchecked and now have the power to decide which voices are heard and which are not. The same can and will happen in space.

In this sense, Josef Aschbacher, director-general of the European Space Agency, recently said that Elon Musk was being allowed to “make the rules” in space. This refers not only to the advances in the launching capacity of SpaceX, but also the Starlink satellite internet constellation it operates. Aschbacher has encouraged states to avoid competition and, instead, focus on empowering the private sector to achieve better results faster.

It is also true that the revolution in the space sector today was brought about partly by Musk. By democratizing access to space and making it cheaper, he has unleashed a historical opportunity for a large number of new space companies to offer various applications. A big part of the financing of SpaceX comes from NASA and US government contracts, of course. Yet, the US has moved quickly and shifted the power toward the private sector. The same is now happening in the region that covers Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

And so, just as social media has transformed every company into a media company, in the future every company will become a space company. Once again, the key point is that whoever has control over the supply chain, whether private sector or government, will have the capacity to shut down others and generate chaos.

Hence, the development of a sustainable framework among friends and allies — as Saudi Arabia and France have initiated — is an absolute necessity to grasp the economic opportunities space is creating. Nevertheless, it is also important to build for a future that protects and offers security, especially as the risk of geopolitics morphing into astropolitics increases.

• Khaled Abou Zahr is CEO of Eurabia, a media and tech company. He is also the editor of Al-Watan Al-Arabi.