The Future Of Space Is Now: Why All Companies Need A Space Strategy

Over 20 years ago, companies stumbled to launch their online presence. At the same time, the private space industry was on the launchpad fueled by public sector contracts. 

This was the catalyst that made space-related businesses possible. The writing was on the wall, but few noticed. 

Companies like Spire Global SPIR recognized that writing and built a value chain atop the wall, making space accessible for everyone. While some industries failed to anticipate and adapt to the future, Spire's modus operandi has not only been to anticipate but actively build the future. In many tangible ways, it is built. The future is here. 

Rather than looking outward to space as an escape from Earth’s challenges, companies like Spire are leveraging space to help solve some of Earth’s most urgent problems.

The Writing on the Wall.

Looking at similar technological paradigm shifts, in the early 2000s, businesses were tasked with creating an online presence. With no tools built or tested, many brick-and-mortar shops lumbered online.

The advent of products like Amazon Web Services was a gateway that rocketed the establishment of e-commerce. Consequently, businesses gained entry to operate globally without the expense of maintaining a physical presence. In 2022, Amazon accounted for nearly $2 in every $5 spent online in the U.S., according to eMarketer.

A similar transformation continues to unfold in newsrooms. The necessity to be first to report a story in a digital age rendered many newspapers obsolete.

With few pre-built solutions to be first and fastest, newsrooms grapple to find their way online. Diving head-first into social media and subscription-based models – arguably, neither a fix-all – has led to many shortcomings. Both avenues drove the search for new tools and sprouted alternative news sources.

The shift from VHS to DVD and on to streaming services caused the same upheavals. Not having a plan isn’t sufficient, lest you become the Blockbuster Video of your industry. The streaming industry, now valued at $372 billion (as per Fortune Business Insights), surges ahead.

The Future is Here.

Two decades later, depending on terrestrial data amounts to relying on yesterday’s news. Nothing made this clearer than a global pandemic.

When travel and trade flatlined, eyes on the ground were either unreliable or non-existent. Almost immediately, every industry – global and local – was impacted.

Irrespective of industry, investments, or daily plans, the world is now remarkably interconnected. Global events from severe weather to cargo congestion draw us closer together. While the Internet brings the world to our doorstep, space serves as a conduit connecting us more intimately to the tangible realities of our surroundings.

While private sector rockets make accessing space possible, the capabilities-per-kilogram of satellites has grown tenfold every five years, reducing the cost of building space technology and enabling many new use cases.

In the last 10 years, Spire created an accessible, ready-to-use constellation of Earth-observing satellites in space. With over 100 Low Earth Multi-Use Receiver (LEMUR) satellites in orbit, Spire’s Earth observing coverage is near real-time and extends globally. 

For industries that spent two decades building a global profile online, Spire’s LEMUR constellation future-proofs and taps into a much greater total addressable market. 

At the World Economic Forum in Davos this year, the burgeoning future of space-based businesses was top of mind. The global management consulting firm McKinsey values the space market at $447 billion this year and on track to exceed $1 trillion by 2030.

Sensor technology, satellite research and development, rocket launches, orbital paths – the barriers to entry into space may seem astronomical. They're not. 

It is Built.

A dashboard showing every grain shipment out of Ukraine today? Spire built it and it updates in near real-time. 

Spire's growing offerings tap into our unique technology differentiator. LEMUR satellites operate in the radio spectrum, deploying dark ship detection tools to identify vessels engaged in signal jamming and spoofing to disguise their origin, destination, or location. 

Spire’s dark shipping tool tracking a ship crossing the Atlantic (blue) while the ship spoofs its location (orange) to appear off the coast of Africa.

Companies and governments use radio frequency intelligence across the world for public safety, commercial insights, and defense purposes.

Defense and security are the main markets for radio frequency intelligence. Known in many industries by names such as electronic warfare, situational awareness, signal intelligence, and radio frequency intelligence will become more vital, as geopolitical stressors mount. In 2020, Euroconsult estimated the Earth Observation market at $1.6 billion and an estimated 5% compound annual growth rate over the next 5 years.

Tracking cargo shipments around a typhoon in the Pacific? It is built, and Spire’s dashboard exports data in a single click.

A weather forecast and alerts for monitored power distribution lines and substations at risk of disruptive weather? It's waiting for you.

Need a constant flow of events at every major seaport worldwide? Its LEMUR constellation collects data points over 10,000 times per day. 

Regardless the size of industry; space now has a right-sized solution for every company. 

Spire's customer Mantle Labs built an AI platform to deliver timely insights to farmers, helping maximize yields and create risk assessments. Spire’s global nature means its data helps Mantle Labs deliver valuable agricultural insights worldwide.

DeepSea monitors Spire’s weather data in its own AI-powered voyage optimization platform that projects approximately $11 billion in annual global savings in fuel costs. DeepSea projects a reduction of 57 million tons of carbon emissions – equivalent to removing 12.6 million gas-powered cars from the road for a year, according to the EPA. 

Immediate/Near Real-Time Data

Spire’s data collection methods open a range of possibilities – enabling weather forecasting, monitoring ocean winds and waves, plotting and monitoring optimal courses for cargo ships, forecasting weather that could impact a power grid, estimating takeoff and arrival times for airlines, and even measuring headwinds that can impact a flight’s fuel usage. 

At ground level, Spire’s constellation observes and records soil moisture levels and weather conditions that provide insights into vegetation health and potential hotspots for wildfires. 

Whether it’s a farmer concerned about soil moisture levels across a field to determine an optimum time to plant crops, or a multinational shipping company keeping an eye on a fleet at sea, space-based data using radio frequencies allow one to see through the clouds, in near real-time and monitor the unseen.

Access Inaccessible Locations

Monitoring assets from space offers one of the most notable advantages: unrivaled accessibility to even the most remote areas on Earth. For businesses, the ability to seamlessly monitor and evaluate an entire production line in real-time from low-Earth orbit is now more cost-effective than flying teams around the world.

For retailers, this translates into visibility over the global shipment process and helps maintain a dynamic inventory—knowing precisely when and where orders are being dispatched. For example, precise predictive forecasts can help a company that makes puffy jackets plan shipments of inventory through Los Angeles port before an early chill in the U.S. Midwest.

The effects of severe weather on the economy require accurate forecasts. Space-based weather predictions have the ability to increase accuracy and provide longer-range forecasts than terrestrial models.

So far in 2023 as of June 9, the U.S. has suffered 9 confirmed weather and climate disasters, each costing over $1 billion, as listed by NOAA. The annual average for the last three years was 18 weather events, each costing over $1 billion. While Spire’s data cannot mitigate severe weather, Spire can help to reduce the costs through better forecast modelling and help position first responders to be most effective in the aftermath.

Large Scale Robust Data Collection

For over a decade, Spire has actively grown our datasets. Spire’s LEMUR satellites have collectively amassed over 500 years of experience in space. Every second our datasets grow, offering the ability to create machine learning models for predictive insights across virtually all industries.

For ships at sea, Spire can provide precise information down to the second regarding ship movements and port activity. Spire is always monitoring current weather conditions that have the potential to impact arrival times. 

Space-based data not only increase one’s ability to see around the world – but also through time to create models for the future.

Multispectral & Multisensor Capabilities

Certain industries demand specialized sensors onboard satellites. Whether it's monitoring greenhouse gas emissions or creating a blockchain in space, Spire's Space Services unit accommodates unique use cases.

Spire let clients leverage its existing infrastructure for building, testing, and deploying satellites. This enables clients like OroraTech to perform early detection of wildfires from space, helping save lives and properties while fighting climate change.

Spire can deploy a customized satellite tailored to a specific use case through its Space-as-a-Service model.

With Spire’s Constellation, Coverage is Quick, Scalable, and Cost-Effective

In the last decade, Spire has created space-based solutions that are accessible and equitable for every use case. 

Spire’s constellation of LEMURs is deployed. The company’s datasets are accessible – and growing. It sees over the horizon and through the heaviest cloud cover. 

Spire provides near real-time data across Weather, Maritime, and Aviation industries in a total addressable market estimated by a well-known consulting firm to be in excess of 100 billion dollars.

Just as the Internet brought the world of commerce and utility to our doorsteps, space-based data is connecting us with the environmental realities that surround each of us and exist in the increasingly complicated relationship between the planet Earth, and its growing inhabitants.

Spire is already building what’s next.

Featured image courtesy of Spire

This post was authored by an external contributor and does not represent Benzinga's opinions and has not been edited for content. This contains sponsored content and is for informational purposes only and not intended to be investing advice.