Space applications have a particular impact on the following areas: positioning, navigation, precise time, communications, meteorological observations, remote sensing and characterisation, and science & research. Space-based location, navigation and time services (Positioning, Navigation and Timing, PNT) such as GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou and Galileo enable the satellite to be used for navigation and many routine functions. They support sea, land, and air transport, for example, in route planning and congestion management. For the military, this information makes it possible to accurately target missiles and ammunition, as well as navigate aircraft, troops and ships.

Of the PNT signals, accurate time service, in particular, also supports critical infrastructure. Without accurate time, financial institutions would not be able to create timestamps for transactions, which would affect the use of ATMs and credit cards. Nor would electricity companies be able to transmit electricity efficiently.

The loss of communications satellites could have wide-ranging effects. In 1998, an American telecommunications satellite suffered a computer failure. As a result, people couldn’t pay for fuel, hospitals couldn’t get in touch with doctors who relied on pagers, and television stations couldn’t broadcast programs. In the armed forces, satellite communications improve situational awareness and increase troop mobility.

Weather observation and remote sensing satellites provide terrain and environmental data that help businesses determine the viability of mineral resources and help farmers identify potential agricultural disasters. These satellites also support military activities by providing intelligence and surveillance data.

Society has greatly benefited from technologies made possible by space exploration. These include phone cameras, solar panels, laptops, and compact water purification systems.

The development of minisatellite and microsatellite technology makes it possible to exploit space, especially commercially. Such a company in the Nordic countries is the Finnish ICEYE Oy, founded in 2014. It is developing a service that utilises microsatellites equipped with SAR radars to provide near-real-time radar images, regardless of time and weather conditions. The demo satellite was launched into orbit in 2018, and since then there have been annual launches. The plan is to expand the satellite constellation to at least 18 satellites. The Swedish company, Ovzon AB, provides broadband and mobile communications via satellite. Its communications satellite Ovzon-3 is scheduled to be launched into space aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket in the fall of 2023.

In 2019, the SpaceX and OneWeb companies began deploying low-orbit (LEO) satellites to provide high-speed internet access worldwide. The number of low-orbit satellites had almost doubled by the end of 2020. SpaceX has already launched more than 300 Starlink satellites into space and plans to launch up to 12,000 of them within the next few years. The mission of the Starlink system is to provide high-speed internet access anywhere on the Earth. Several other companies (such as Amazon and OneWeb) are planning similar networks around the globe.

Up to 60 Starlink satellites will be launched at the same time. Starlink satellites are relatively small telecommunications satellites whose task is to provide a high-speed data network spanning half of our planet. In the future, it will be possible to connect to the Internet via a megaconstellation from anywhere, anytime, cheaply and simply.

Such megaconstellations, or megascale satellite structures, are being designed by 18 companies and joint consortia. They plan to launch around 26,000 satellites within the next ten years or so, and eventually to increase the number to more than 50,000 satellites.

OneWeb is another of the megaconstellations already under construction. It has 650 satellites, and also intends to provide the entire globe with Internet access. During the next stage, satellites will be placed at different heights, with orbital heights between 335 and 1,325 kilometres.

10 years ago, SpaceX began pursuing the ability of its launchers to return to the Earth and fly again.