Boldly Insure Where No One Has Gone: The Space Industry

Space today has become big business that will only expand thanks to the excitement and focus driven by the likes of Bezos, Branson and Musk.

In the last decade, the space sector has seen over 50% growth in commercial space initiatives. The commercial portion of the space ecosystem saw $200 billion of investment in 1,500 companies.

The marketplace for space insurance today revolves around policies for physical assets, in particular satellite coverage. Coverage includes pre-launch testing and facility exposures, launch and orbital protection, as well as coverage for ground support services.

For the nascent space tourism industry, the current practice is that all passengers sign a waiver of liability and assume full risk themselves. This is serving as a bridge until the insurance market can provide a solution.

An emerging insurance concern is that current policy language may not be contract-certain regarding space exposures.