The Italian space sector is booming, with strong technological values and significant national funding. However, it must be able to expand its reach beyond institutional clientele. This shot was taken by the Politecnico di Milano's Space Economy Observatory. The thriving space sector is valued more than $100 billion globally, with $7 billion in Europe. Italy spends 0.1% of its GDP, ranking fifth in the world behind the United States (unreachable at 0.29%), Russia (0.15%), France (0.12%), and Japan (0.11%). If the growth path is plainly obvious, the sector's initial barrier is dimensional, with SMEs unable to interface with the sector's key "customers," i.e. Space Agencies. To date, 35% and 28% of SMEs directly work with the European and Italian Space Agencies, respectively, but large firms have average percentages that are double that. Another issue is the process of expanding the Space Economy into "non-space" sectors, which is currently almost imperceptible: only 10% of large companies, potential end users, are interested in or have launched initial initiatives related to the Space Economy, while the remaining 90% claim to be unaware of the issue or do not see it as valuable.
|