Towards an empirical measure of spacecraft innovation: The case of communication satellites

This paper seeks to frame the discussion of innovation in the space sector and creates a platform for future analysis. To accomplish this, it addressed three aspects of the task of measurement. First, it surveys several distinct literatures to establish precedence for defining a spacecraft innovation metric. Second, the conceptual trade-offs associated with adopting this principle in the context of communication satellites are elucidated and treated. By defining product boundaries along the dimensions of product scope and market transactions, three paradigms for measurement are proposed; namely: (1) the communication satellite enterprise; (2) the physical satellite; and (3) communication service. Third, under the constraints of historical data collection realities, next-best estimators are put forward as proxies for the parameters required to implement the proposed metrics. Based on these proxies, the relative merits of each measurement paradigm are illustrated through an analysis of the innovation history of communication satellites.