What can the African Space Agency learn from the U.S.?
The inauguration of the African Space Agency (AfSA) on January 25, 2023 heralded a decades long push for a continental agency to direct space affairs within Africa. In this series, Kwaku Sumah examines the stated aims and goals of the agency, and asks, is it possible for the AfSA to achieve its stated aims as designed?
Read the previous Part One, Two, Three, Four
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1.1 The United States of America
The approaches taken by both Europe and Asia, although distinct, were largely developed in response to the premier space superpower - the United States of America (U.S.). The U.S. is the progenitor of the centralised agency-driven approach that the legacy space industry was patterned after – and that drove European Member States to coalesce and compete against.
The U.S.’s space industry grew out of a geopolitical conflict with the former Soviet Union, and more specifically the Sputnik crisis. Western nations were fearful of the perceived technological gap to the Soviet Union due to the launch of Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite. This crisis is largely attributed to the creation of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the start of the Space Race.[1] Both the U.S. and Soviet Union advanced their space programs on the back of military aspirations; developing more powerful rockets, satellites, and technologies such as the Global Positioning System (GPS). The Space Race eventually culminated in the Apollo 11 Moon landing on 20 July 1969.
“NASA was the progenitor of the legacy space era, where the U.S. Government drove the innovation and growth of the industry with very large investments. ”
NASA’s creation was similar to that of ESA – established as an agglomeration of previous space institutions and efforts – particularly the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). NASA was created as the non-military space agency, with the military arm of the U.S.’s space efforts run by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).[2] As the civil space program for the U.S., NASA focused primarily on space exploration and research, establishing various centres and facilities across the country.
NASA was the progenitor of the legacy space era, where the U.S. Government drove the innovation and growth of the industry with very large investments. Throughout the Space Race and Apollo program, NASA was at the centre of all space efforts; setting the strategy for space exploration, and coordinating the domestic market through government purchases of specific equipment and products according to specific design specifications from other aerospace firms (e.g. Lockheed Martin and Boeing). This centralised model was intentional and outlined by then NASA Administrator James Webb who believed that “national space policy should not be turned over to private firms. It was government acting in the public interest that had to determine what should be done, when it should be done, and for how much money.”[3]
The transition from that NASA-driven model came following the Apollo program. Initially, NASA continued to drive efforts, particularly focusing on the Space Transportation System (STS) also known colloquially as the Space Shuttle program. The program aimed to provide reliable transportation to orbit for crew and cargo, and was operational from 1981 to 2011. While the legacy approach was successful in enabling the construction of the International Space Station (ISS), and Hubble Space Telescope, it came at a huge cost (~2/3 of NASA’s human spaceflight budget, around U.S.$ 250 billion in today’s valuation), and missed more than half of its planned yearly flights.[4] The Space Shuttle Challenger disaster in 1986 and the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003 laid bare the inefficiencies of the NASA-centralised model, ultimately leading NASA to make several structural changes, and to cancel the program in 2011.
The foundation for space commercialisation in the USA had been laid previously in 1962 when the U.S. Congress created COMSAT, a public-private partnership leveraging NASA to kick off the private satellite communications industry. In 1984, President Ronald Reagan built on this by signing the Commercial Space Launch Act of 1984. Reagan also oversaw the creation of the Office of Commercial Programs at NASA, and the Office of Commercial Space Transportation in the Department of Transportation.[5] However, it was the end of the STS in 2011 that really kick-started the growth of the commercial space industry in the U.S.; ultimately having a much greater effect than previous efforts and becoming a large contributing factor to the growth of the private sector globally today.
“Rather than covering the costs incurred by private contractors, along with an additional fixed fee or percentage, NASA now offers a fixed-price contract, providing contractors solely with design requirements, rather than specifications. ”
To make up for the failure of the STS, and to find a replacement to enable human spaceflight, NASA turned to the commercial sector, assuming the role of a public anchor tenant for commercial enterprises and opening up the path for NASA to enter into multi-year contracts with private actors. While partnerships between NASA and private companies already occurred in the 1960s — Lockheed Martin and Boeing both benefited from NASA procurement — the partnership structure changed to allow private companies more flexibility in meeting the procurement needs of NASA. Rather than covering the costs incurred by private contractors, along with an additional fixed fee or percentage, NASA now offers a fixed-price contract, providing contractors solely with design requirements, rather than specifications. This grants private actors’ greater freedom and responsibility in serving NASA’s needs. Additionally, the private actor also has full rights, and is able to use the spacecraft for private purposes, enabling commercialisation. To maintain a competitive market structure, they also applied a diversified set of award contracts, including six companies in the first Commercial Crew Development program, which has narrowed to two in the final round.[6]
This change has had a huge impact on the commercial industry in the U.S., especially when looking at the launch industry. SpaceX’s rapid rise in particular owes much to this change, fulfilling the role of the previous STS program and providing reliable access to space for NASA’s crew and cargo. Along with SpaceX, Blue Origin and Sierra Nevada have also managed to establish themselves as reliable private space transportation companies.
Outside of NASA, defence organisations also moved away from owning their satellites to being anchor tenants on commercial satellites, while other large firms have partnered together to act as anchor tenants.[7]
In a move to enable further commercialisation of Low-Earth Orbit (LEO), the U.S. Congress passed the NASA Transition and Authorization Act in March 2017; transitioning to a regime where “NASA could be one of many customers of a low-Earth orbit, non-governmental human space flight enterprise.” This essentially cedes direction of activities in LEO to commercial space providers, and focuses NASA’s activities primarily on space exploration and research – similar to the large part of ESA’s remit.
Whether or not the path taken by the U.S. can be applied one-to-one to the African context is of course a topic for further exploration, and it is a fact that the starting lines are not the same. Private companies in the U.S. benefited from the established space infrastructure built of NASA technology, the existing NASA facilities, and indemnification from risk.[8] Similarly, it can be argued that for some activities a clear divide between the public and private sector could be beneficial, and that private economic activity could undermine some of NASA’s authority. Additionally, the public-private partnerships employed in the U.S. face a risk of politicisation as the public sector acts as the main procurer of services.
In the case of Africa, an approach that supports and enables private actors while meeting government requirements (e.g. through anchor tenancy) could perfectly serve the goals of the AfSA. Which is to develop products and services using African capacities, develop and increase the African space asset base, develop a competitive regional market, address socioeconomic issues, and ensure a reasonable and significant financial and social return.[9] By framing the AfSA as a customer for the private sector, innovation would be allowed to flourish at a more rapid pace, with the burden of innovation and economic growth shared between various actors.
Kwaku Sumah
Kwaku is the founder of Spacehubs Africa, and has been active in the space industry since 2016, working as a consultant for European and African space institutions and companies. He has worked on projects across the entire space value chain, including analysis on downstream markets, space debris evolution, planetary defence, and the launch market; as well as an assessment of the European financing landscape and due diligence on space companies.
[1] Kay, Sean, "America's Sputnik Moments", Survival, 55 (2), April to May 2013: pp. 123–146doi:10.1080/00396338.2013.784470. S2CID 154455156.
[2] Dwight D. Eisenhower and Science & Technology, Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission, 2008.
[3]Joan Lisa Bromberg, “NASA and the Space Industry”, Johns Hopkins University, 1999.
[4] Weinzierl, Matthew, “Space, the Final Economic Frontier”, Journal of Economic Perspectives, vol 32, no 2, Spring 2018, pp. 173-192.
[5] NASA, “Commercial Orbital Transportation Services: A New Era in Spaceflight”, 2014, https://www.nasa.
gov/sites/default/files/files/SP-2014-617.pdf
[6] Ibid.
[7]Press Release, “Gogo partners with Intelsat on GEO/LEO network”, https://runwaygirlnetwork.com/2016/03/07/press-release-gogo-partners-with-intelsat-on-geoleo-network/).
[8] NASA, “Commercial Orbital Transportation Services: A New Era in Spaceflight”, 2014, https://www.nasa.
gov/sites/default/files/files/SP-2014-617.pdf).
[9] African Union, “African Space Policy, Towards Social, Political and Economic Integration. Second Ordinary Session for the Specialized Technical Committee Meeting on Education, Science and Technology”, 21 to 23 October 2017, Cairo, Egypt, https://au.int/sites/default/files/newsevents/workingdocuments/33178-wd-african_space_policy_-_st20444_e_original.pdf.