Yes, EO has been around for decades - starting from the Landsat program of the US in the 1970s, the Copernicus programme of Europe in the 2000s and other institutional EO programmes around the world - and much of the EO data is being used extensively by the scientific community, across the world. No, EO is not a saturated market (In fact, I don’t think the market has been figured out at all, in the commercial sense). No, EO is just not about pretty pictures whose prints you can order online and hang in your wall. No, EO companies do not magically make millions of $ in revenues right after their satellites are launched (I have worked with some big names in EO and I guess, they would agree). Much of this is true, except for the last part - unless satellites are launched for use in the defence sector or with another anchor customer. Soon after launch, EO companies usually start making millions of $ in recurring revenues with the data they collect.” Recently, I even heard a space expert* say: “ EO is a saturated, overcrowded market, where mostly everything has been figured out. Finally, there are a few who think the job in Earth observation is done as soon as the satellites are launched and they start collecting data. ” The expert community, on the other hand, (remote sensing, geospatial, artificial intelligence) considers EO as this incredible source of scientific data from different type of sensors in space holding the key to solving a number of global challenges of our time. Some in the space community usually see EO as just another segment in the satellite market to be launched with the ~200 launchers/rockets, in development, while others think of EO as images taken from space that (mostly) look beautiful and can be used in “ solving problems in various industries on Earth. Both those within the industry and those outside the ‘space bubble’ do not pay a lot of attention to this market (although that’s changing a little, with a lot of money being thrown into EO startups lately). I have been writing about Earth observation (EO) - this largely, misunderstood and underreported part of the space industry - for a while now.
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