Notes de l'Ifri - New Space: The Impact of the Digital Revolution on Space Actors and Policies in Europe Notes de l'Ifri, January 2017
Like most “traditional” industries, for several years the space industry has been faced with the challenges of digital technology. So, the European space industry is dealing with new actors from digital technology, which are mainly American start-ups or Silicon Valley giants such as GAFA (Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple)
The latter use new methods such as increased use of private financing, faster production and decision-making cycles, and a rebalancing of priorities between the designer and client.
The digital revolution has additional characteristics with regard to the space industry. Indeed, it is not only the processes which have changed, but also the type of services which pass through the satellites. For example, telecommunications satellites (satcom) are moving away from the distribution of television channels to bandwidth distribution in order to broadcast digital content.