The economic impact analysis of satellite development and its application in Korea

Abstract

Many countries began satellite development from the beginning of the space era and especially after the Apollo era. Korea started satellite development in 1992 by launching small satellite KITSAT-1 more than 20 years after the Apollo 11 lunar landing. Since then, Korea has developed 15 satellites including eight small satellites, five low earth orbit (LEO) Korean Multi-Purpose Satellites (KOMPSAT), and two geostationary orbit (GEO) satellites. Korea is currently developing KOMPSAT 6 and 7 with advanced optical and radar observation capability, GEO-KOMPSAT 2B, middle-sized Compact Advanced Satellites (CAS), and next generation small satellite (NEXTSat). These efforts will raise Korea's satellite technology to the next level. To prepare strategies for efficient and effective development of satellites, it is essential to elaborately assess the economic impacts of previous satellite development projects and their application. In this paper, we examine the economic impacts of Korea's investment into the research and development of national satellites, and their application in the perspective of satellite value chain. To this end, we conducted a cost–benefit analysis on the development of representative satellites. As non-economic impacts, we examined the change of technology independence and technology level, network building effect, and aerospace ecosystem activation effects.