Forget markets. Think: The final frontier: “Space is becoming smaller, closer and cheaper, reinventing an industry that has stagnated for decades and making room for new applications, new technologies and competitors,” says Noah Poponak, aerospace and defense senior equity research analyst in Goldman Sachs Research. This plays out in three main areas, Poponak says: the first is the “traditional government market,” driven by the NASA and defense budgets. There is an expansion in satellite programs and there are new multi-year exploration program with a budget in the bns. The second major area is what is going on in the private world — arguably the most interesting development. Goldman Sachs is seeing companies related to or in Silicon Valley getting into space and “because they’re private, they’re not focused on cost … able to invest a tonne to be able to innovate quickly, bring down costs quickly.” Satellites could soon cost 100-times less than in five years ago, for example. The private sector is working on initiatives ranging from space tourism to attempts to create reusable rockets. The third major area of development, Popnak says, is the militarization of space. “It’s become very clear that some other nations that are not [the US’s] allies have figured out how to get to [US] assets higher and faster than we thought.” Spending on protecting these assets is likely to go up significantly sooner than later (Watch,runtime: 03:03).