The Role of Public Actors in Space Commercialization

Abstract This chapter sheds light on the complex and evolving role played by public actors in setting the “rate” and “direction” of commercialization of space activities. While this increasingly widespread phenomenon is often associated with the principles of free-market economics, this chapter builds evidence on how commercialization has in fact been taking place in a context of active intervention by the “visible hand” of public institutions. Toward this, the chapter first provides a critical review of the meaning of “commercial space” and “commercialization of space.” Subsequently, it outlines the different roles that public actors have taken on in their effort to steer the development of commercial space—namely that of enabler, partner, and customer. The chapter also offers a taxonomy of public interventions that can serve as a conceptual and analytical framework to inform public policy in different institutional contexts.