I have been asked to testify on the existing policies and laws governing the commercialization of space, the importance to the Nation of the industries these policies support, and the impact of future jobs, new technologies and economic growth for the Nation this industry will have. First, let me say that the commercialization of space involves two broad categories of industry. One is use of space as a place to do business, and the other is that of providing transportation between the Earth and space. The latter is my company's primary focus at this time, and my remarks are directed at the policies affecting space transportation. I must, however, say something about the space as a place to do business.
Space is like any other unexplored and untapped territory, only more so.
There are literally whole new worlds within our reach, and in between is a tract of real estate whose extent is beyond comprehension. Real estate and natural resources are the stuff of economic activity. Since the territory of space puts essentially infinite amounts of both at our disposal, one would expect that space would be the most important sector of human action. It should take only a moment's reflection to realize that the ultimate impact will be in multiples of GDP, and large multiples at that. Yet in the first 40 years of the Space Age, the only commercial use of space has been as a place to locate communications relay stations.