2021 was a robust year for space venture capital, but 2022 has a "more challenging environment," with VC investment trending downward quarter after quarter, said Maureen Haverty, Seraphim Space vice president-investment, in a Space Tech Expo webinar Tuesday. She said early-stage and seed-stage investing are "holding on pretty well," but growth investment is taking a hit. She said deals in growth investment are faring better in the U.S. than in Europe, which doesn't have a strong growth investment scene in space anyway, while the U.S. investment community has more risk tolerance. Haverty said growth investors have traditionally focused on revenue and profitability, but 2021 was an anomaly where investors were more liberal in their standards. "Now the standards have returned," and companies seeking VC investment need to focus on revenue and profitability, she said. Ali Baghchehsara, president of space propulsion startup Plasmos, said the investment environment will likely remain more challenging for a while. He said for companies seeking funding, the focus needs to be on having a simple story and on achieving milestones to demonstrate progress.
Trying to ensure that broadband, equity, access and deployment program money doesn't end up paying for overbuilding of existing broadband networks is a big cable priority, industry and company officials told us. ACA Connects' advocacy, which has focused on NTIA, will increasingly turn toward states in coming weeks as they lay out their challenge processes to, and seek OK from, NTIA, said Vice President-Regulatory Affairs Mike Jacobs.
Having heard the spectrum and regulatory needs of in-space servicing, assembly and manufacturing companies, the FCC now needs to move quickly on an NPRM to address them, ISAM operators said in docket 22-271 reply comments Tuesday. The commission received comments last month in its notice of inquiry about ways to aid nascent ISAM operations (see 2211010025). NTIA said it and federal agencies "support and commend" FCC efforts toward ensuring ISAM industry activities have access to spectrum and helping drive ISAM growth.
The slew of space-related special-purpose acquisition company transactions has slowed to a trickle and isn't likely to pick back up soon, space investment experts told us. Some space companies remain bullish on SPACs as the best route to an initial public offering, Qulty Analytics analyst Caleb Henry said, citing Intuitive Machines, which in September announced a SPAC deal. The space infrastructure company said it expects to go public in Q1 2023.
National competition going on now to dominate in-space manufacturing and for asteroid and lunar resources will determine what nation is likely to dominate the balance of power there for the next century, said American Foreign Policy Council Senior Fellow Peter Garretson at a Hudson Institute event Tuesday. "This is not some piece of policy to be left for later," Garretson said. He said, along with dominating space commodity production and space infrastructure, the U.S. needs to ensure as many partners as possible are using that infrastructure system. The U.S. and China will likely be the main rivals for space dominance, with India being a later arrival, Garretson said. He said Russia, France and Germany will likely follow the norms established by those space powers. The U.S.' lack of a national plan to develop space-based solar energy generation is "negligent and irresponsible," especially given how numerous other nations, including China and various U.S. allies, have their own space solar programs. Other Congressional space priorities also should include making commercial development of space a national policy, Garretson said. He said the national cislunar strategy put out last week by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy references economic development multiple times; commercial development isn't part of the national space policy or in NASA's charter; and it's unclear whether Commerce or NASA would be the lead in those commercial development efforts. Congress also needs to accelerate development of space infrastructure perhaps through designating a public corporation to finance and build that infrastructure, and create space infrastructure bonds, Garretson said. There also should be a space commodities exchange and space commodities futures exchange, he said. The estimated value of mineral resources in the solar system "is truly vast" and easily dwarfs projections of the space economy being anywhere from $1 trillion to $3 trillion by 2040, Garretson said.
The Commerce Department's Office of Space Commerce is the natural home for authorization and oversight of in-space servicing, assembly and manufacturing (ISAM) missions, a parade of space interests told the National Space Council Monday. A similar NSpC listening session last week had numerous parties saying the lack of a single regulatory home for novel space missions is hurting the industry (see 2211140047).
NEW YORK -- Multiple deployments of satellite/smartphone communications face numerous regulatory and technological implementation hurdles, with many operators likely years away from being able to go to market, Globalstar Chairman Jay Monroe told us Wednesday. He and other executives discussed the company's partnership with Apple unveiled in September (see 2209070016) as part of an investor conference at the New York Stock Exchange. Monroe said Apple did "significant ... magic" to make the Globalstar-enabled iPhone 14 SOS messaging service, which went live Tuesday. It's not clear who would perform that for other satcom operators' announced plans, he said.
As the pace of novel space missions looks to rapidly take off in coming years, the U.S. commercial space economy is hurting from lack of one regulatory agency designated to authorize and oversee those missions, several speakers told the National Space Council Monday. NSpC Commercial Space Policy Director Diane Howard said Monday's listening session and another scheduled for Nov. 21 (see 2210130033) will provide fodder as the council comes up with a national space priorities framework.
FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel's plans to remake the International Bureau into a Space Bureau and stand-alone Office of International Affairs (OIA) (see 2211030032) will likely get bipartisan support at the commission, former agency officials said. There was initial concern about the announced plan from House Commerce Committee ranking member Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., for potentially taking limelight away from the Satellite and Telecommunications Streamlining Act (see 2211040039), but those concerns seemingly have been papered over, a current commission staffer told us. We were told commissioners will likely see the Space Bureau as a good thing, especially if it can streamline the regulatory approval process for applicants.
The California Public Utilities Commission hopes to issue a draft of its proposed broadband loan loss reserve fund program rules by late December or early 2023, to be followed by a comments cycle and a final vote in Q1 next year, said an aide to Commissioner Darcie Houck Tuesday during a virtual meeting of the commission. The $750 million fund's aim is helping local governments, tribes and nonprofits build broadband infrastructure, giving them collateral that leads to better borrowing rates and terms for bonds issued, said Justin Fong, CPUC senior regulatory analyst. During the presentation, Fong laid out staff proposals for the fund terms and what comments the commission had received in response. He said the staff proposal has the reserve fund providing principal coverage of 5%-20% of the project loan's total amount, depending on the perceived risk of the application, with eligible costs including credit enhancement, transaction fees and cost of the guarantor to issue. He said the CPUC had received comments from interested parties recommending varying principal coverage amounts, including up to 80% of project costs that serve unserved disadvantaged communities. He said the staff proposal recommended an applicant prioritization trigger once 80% of the fund is encumbered or the fund balance is less than 30%, but some interested parties said loan loss funds shouldn't be limited just to projects in unserved areas and that prioritization criteria be applied from the program's start.