Supply Chains and Space Capabilities in the New Space Age

The globalisation of value chains has had a significant impact on the U.S. and EU economies and, as a consequence, on their defence and space capabilities. From the point of view of supply chains and production capacities, the military and civil space sectors are tightly interconnected and will become even more so in the future. Recent years have witnessed increasing instances of supply chain disturbances which have directly or indirectly affected the space sector, highlighting its vulnerability. This chapter will examine the interconnectedness between geopolitics, supply chains, raw materials and space activity.
Limiting the analysis to the space supply chain would only provide a limited understanding of the challenges the sector faces today or might face in the future which could hold it back from reaching its full potential…