GOVERNMENT INTERVENTION IN THE SPACE SECTOR: POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS FOR TURKEY

Year 2020, Volume: 42 Issue: 2, 265 - 282, 31.12.2020

Türksoy Emen

https://doi.org/10.14780/muiibd.854382

Abstract

After Russia launched the first satellite, Sputnik I, into Earth orbit in 1957, Space Race started between the
US and Russia. Both governments allocated huge budgets for space missions until the second half of the
1970s. But space research didn’t remain limited to the two countries over the years; some other countries
established their space agencies and started engaging in space activities. At first, NASA was at the center
of the US civilian space sector; it coordinated the market purchasing from aerospace firms. But later it
changed its strategy and began to collaborate with private space companies in certain space missions using
Public Private Partnership method in particular. Some other space agencies also adopted this method. This
change has helped to increase investments and has encouraged start-ups to get into the market. Today,
the global space economy has reached a significant size along with the increasing number of companies
and diversified production. So the governments have intervened in the market not only to correct market
failures, which provide a rationale for government intervention but also to create the market. In this context,
this study discusses the need for government intervention in the market to create a private space sector in
the light of the NASA and ESA experiences, and develops economic policy recommendations for Turkey
examining the Decree that has established the Turkish Space Agency formally.

Keywords

Market Failures, the Global Space Economy, Space Research, Turkish Space Agency

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