The Cislunar Market Opportunities Report: In-Space Business within the Earth-Moon System was  recently released by NewSpace Global. I was the primary analyst on the report, which surveys a wide array of commercial activities and opportunities within  cislunar space, i.e. the region from low Earth orbit to the Moon, including the lunar surface.

The particular focus of the report is on those commercial sectors that support activities in space rather than those that deliver services to earth. In-space businesses include, for example, satellite servicing and space tugs in earth orbit and communications and navigation satellites around the Moon. Such endeavors constitute an in-space infrastructure that is forming and expanding before our eyes.

I’ve followed commercial space development closely since the 1990s yet even I’m quite surprised by the current boom in cislunar endeavors. I initially planned just a brief update on a cislunar report I wrote in 2019  but soon realized that there had been major progress since then. Rather than just concepts and plans, in almost every sector there are companies with hardware already in space or with hardware in preparation for upcoming missions to space. It took 161 pages to describe the full scope of what is happening.

I discussed the report on the  Space Economy podcast with Marc Boucher, who is the President and COO of Multiverse Media Group LLC, which now owns NewSpace Global. (Dylan Taylor is the founder and chairman of Multiverse.) Check out our discussion: Insight Into the Cislunar Market Opportunities Report – SpaceQ

When we were finalizing the report, a big challenge was deciding when to stop incorporating the seemingly continuous in-flow of news and announcements of cislunar developments. Here is a sampling of cislunar in-space business news since the report was published:

• The CAPSTONE spacecraft, launched by Rocket Lab and operated by Advanced Space, went into lunar orbit successfully, becoming “the first commercially owned satellite to fly to and operate at the Moon“. It will do orbital studies for NASA and also test techniques for providing navigation signals to spacecraft in orbit around the Moon.
  • Advanced Space Leads First Ever Commercial Mission to Operate at the Moon | Advanced Space – Nov.21.2022
  • CAPSTONE Forges New Path for NASA’s Future Artemis Moon Missions | NASA – Nov.21.2022
• Advanced Space also won a $72M contract from the  Air Force to send a satellite to the Moon to demonstrate technologies for monitoring and tracking objects in lunar orbit:
  • Advanced Space Awarded Contract to Deliver Air Force Research Laboratory’s Mission to the Moon | Advanced Space – Nov.17.2022
• Starfish Space will demonstrate in-space docking of an ion propelled Otter Pup satellite next year. The mission will test several technologies the company will use for satellite servicing.
  • Starfish Space ‘Otter Pup’ to Dock With a Satellite | Starfish Space – Nov.9.2022
  • Starfish books launch for in-orbit satellite docking mission next fall | SpaceNews – Nov.11.2022
• General Atomics announces progress on a nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP) project funded by DARPA: “The NTP system is intended to allow a nuclear thermal rocket to operate in cislunar space, the region between the Earth and the Moon.”
  • General Atomics Completes DRACO Nuclear Thermal Propulsion System Design and Test Milestone | General Atomics – Nov.7.2022
• The White House released a report on cislunar policy:
  • OSTP Releases First National Cislunar Science & Technology Strategy | SpaceRef – Nov.17.2022
  • National Cislunar Science & Technology Strategy | OSTP (PDF)
• ESA will re-invigorate its support for commercial endeavors at the Moon:
  • Europe looks to commercialize lunar exploration efforts | SpaceNews – Nov.22.2022

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