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2015 – RDT&E and IR&D funding

Independent Research and Development (IR&D) refers to a contractor’s own investment in research and development studies into promising technologies of potential interest to government or commercial customers. Companies can recover a portion of these costs as overhead on current government contracts. In 2015, IR&D spending was estimated to be $165 million.

2015 – Space Insurance

Infrastructure support industries include activities that do not directly involve development or use of space assets, but are necessary to the smooth operation and advancement of the industry. This category includes space insurance and privately funded research and development. Space premiums in 2015 amounted to $726.6 million, their lowest level since 2001. Seven events, including both launch failures and incidents involving satellites in orbit, led to market losses of $664.3 million, resulting in $62.2 million in profits. This is a significant decrease from the $222.5 million in profits in 2014, but an increase from the $23.3 million in losses in 2013

2015 – Commercial Human Spaceflight

In 2015, NASA put in orders with both SpaceX and Boeing to conduct their first operational commercial crew rotation missions under the Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) Program. The first operational flights would take place in late 2017, following the companies’ completion of NASA human spaceflight certification milestones, including crewed test flights to take place earlier in 2017.