Private investments in space are essential, head of Italian space agency says

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MILAN (Reuters) – Private investment in the space sector is essential for its growth and must not be demonised, but needs to be regulated, the chief of Italian Space Agency ASI said on Sunday ahead of a conference on the industry in Milan.

“We must not demonise the arrival of private companies (in the sector),” ASI President Teodoro Valente told Reuters ahead of the International Astronautical Congress, which starts on Oct. 14. “All the estimates about exponential growth of the space economy are hardly achievable if there was no substantial entry of private companies.”

Valente added that “private input is essential because public resources (can then) be used as a multiplier”.

The global space economy is seen soaring to $1.8 trillion by 2035, up from $630 billion in 2023, growing at an average of 9% per year or almost twice the rate of projected growth in global GDP, a report by the World Economic Forum and McKinsey has estimated.

Investment from the private sector reached an all-time high of more than $70 billion in 2021 and 2022, the report added.

Valente said, however, that the entrance of private companies in space operations required clear legislation, identifying roles, responsibilities and also looking at the sector’s long-term sustainability.

He said these rules were needed to “address a series of solvable issues”, pointing to Italy’s recently-announced framework legislation for the space sector as an example.

(Reporting by Giulia Segreti; Editing by David Holmes)