The space age dawned in 1957 with the successful orbiting of Sputnik by the Soviet Union, and it surged forward with the Apollo moon land-ings, ushering in the era of satellites and deep space probes. This situation in which space business relied on space science probes, space shuttle flights, and satellite launches largely persisted until the decentralization of space exploration began in the years following the 2003 Challenger Shuttle accident. In the subsequent decade, the US space agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) shifted its focus from engaging in a wide array of space activities to concentrating on lunar, Martian, solar, and other deep space missions. Nonetheless, historical events accelerated the decentralization trend as the Russian space agency experienced several highly visible launch failures from 2010 to 2014. It was evident that a transition from government-led space exploration to private-sector leadership would occur. The ques-tions were how rapidly and effectively the private industry could make this transition. Time was of the essence as NASA canceled the space shuttle program, with its last flight in 2011, and had to depend on Russia’s Roscosmos to deliver supplies and crew to the International Space Station (ISS). Even earlier, however, in 2001, the privatization of Intelsat occurred, marking a clear departure from government-dominated space services. The privatization, the move away from human launches by NASA, and similar events were steps toward the New Space era. New Space is understood here as a model where value stems from investor support for entrepreneurial ventures, in contrast to “old space,” where value traditionally originated from government sources directed to research institutions and defense contractors (Paikowsky, 2017; Peeters, 2021;Weinzierl, 2018).