Although space commercialization in the United States began as far back as 1964, commercial initiatives did not begin to build momentum until the early 1980s. Worldwide, companies such as Arianespace in France and RSC Energia in Russia provide strong competition in the commercial marketplace to U.S. contractors such as Lockheed Martin Corporation. For the most part, large contract companies still share a large segment of the commercial marketplace.

The U.S. Department of Commerce reported total U.S. commercial space revenues in 1988 of an estimated $1.8 billion, primarily in the area of satellite communications and related ground support. This number doubled in 1990, with the United States retaining about 60 percent of the world market in communications satellites. By 2000, other services, such as remote sensing (photographic imaging from space), were still in their infancy commercially, but the market for such services was expected to grow substantially by 2005. The market...