When the first people from planet Earth went into space in the 1960s, it was the thrill of a lifetime — but we didn’t stay long.
While people were going out and coming back, we put machines into space to get things done., such as...
Delivering television.
Forecasting the weather.
Saving lives at sea
Mitigating disasters on land
Exploring the planets
Keeping the peace
Helping farmers grow more food
Educating millions
Connecting billions.
The next time people traveled into space, they traversed as far as our Moon — and we became even more excited — once again, we didn’t stay long there, either.
Perhaps not each and every mission was not always a big thrill — but each and every mission, in some way, always assisted in making people’s lives on Earth better.
The third time we traveled into space, we built space stations and decided to stay a while... but we still didn’t navigate far from home.
Business Not As Usual
That’s all about to change, because space has become a business, where companies big and small are investing billions of their dollar.
They are investing in less expensive and more reliable ways to go to space and return.
Technologies continue to be developed to help humankind survive in places that are far, far away from the air and warmth and light of Earth.
Resources are being located and technology applied to enable us to use them to manufacture what we need and to power our spacecraft.
Companies have been making money in space for decades, but they have managed this from the safety of the ground.
The next generation of space will build places to live and work, to make a life in space for hundreds, then thousands, then millions of people.
The workof those inhabiting space will benefit those of us still living on Earth with new products and services that we can hardly imagine possible today.
It’s about time. We have been telling stories and making plans about it for more than a century.
Now, someone starting a career today can help make this happen... someone starting school tomorrow could wind up in a job with a view that only astronauts see today..
It will be hard.
The risks are high.
The technology is still being put to the test .
The business potential is far from certain.
However, for the first time since people began going into space, the opportunity is within our grasp — not just to go out and come back to show that we can do it, but to go and build a way of life that reaches as far as the light from our Sun.
To make sure that whatever happens to our beautiful, fragile world — humanity will always have a home in the universe.
Produced for SatNews Publishers and SatMagazine by Space & Satellite Professionals International
Read more stories and see videos of satellites making a better world at www.bettersatelliteworld.com.
The modern world literally runs on satellite – from data networks and TV to Internet, agriculture, energy and transport – though far too few people know it. The commercial satellite industry is now attracting a new generation of entrepreneurs and investors dedicated to lowering launch costs, downsizing spacecraft, servicing them in orbit and delivering ubiquitous connectivity at competitive prices. The Better Satellite World campaign shows the world why our industry, though often invisible, is indispensable to modern life, through powerful stories and videos that depict space and satellite technologies contributing to the economy, society and sustainability of planet Earth.