NewSpace insurance
Transformation of the space sector driven by private actors and falling launch costs, reshaping the insured risk profile.
NewSpace designates the transformation of the space sector driven by the rise of private actors, the drastic fall in launch costs, launcher reuse, satellite miniaturization and the deployment of massive constellations. This transformation breaks with the historical model of large state programs and a few costly satellites. For space insurance, NewSpace profoundly changes the risk profile. The proliferation of cheap small satellites changes the relationship between unit value and number of objects, shifting risk from the major unit loss toward a fleet and accumulation logic. Growing orbital congestion heightens collision and debris risk. New actors, sometimes less capitalized and with a limited reliability record, enter the market. Traditional insurance models, calibrated on high-value geostationary satellites, are challenged by this new economy. NewSpace opens market opportunities but requires rethinking underwriting, accumulation modeling and the pricing of a space risk in full recomposition.
In February 2022, a geomagnetic storm cost SpaceX up to forty of the forty-nine Starlink satellites from a single launch. The deployment of constellations of thousands of cheap small satellites thus shifts space risk from the major unit loss toward a fleet accumulation logic specific to NewSpace.
NewSpace, NewSpace insurance, commercial space insurance
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