The Satellite Industry Association released its 2008 State of the Satellite Industry Report (PDF). The report indicates that there was a 16% revenue gain for the industry as a whole, with overall revenues reaching $123 billion. The segment that includes remote sensing satellites –lumped in with transponder agreements, network management services and end-user broadband–grew from a revenue of $12.1 billion to $14.3 billion.
It’s encouraging to hear such positive performance numbers for this sector. I’m working to uncover more details specific to the remote sensing segment. Given the many global launches, and several that are planned, it makes sense that the market would be expanding considerably, and I see no letup in sight. There’s an urgent and ongoing need for broad-scale monitoring of our planet, and remote sensing is a key component of this.
