NSR estimates that more than 180 new EO satellites will be launched by both government and commercial operators in the next decade. The commercial EO data market is expected to grow more than twice from its current level to reach US$2.2 billion in 2018, while EO Value Added Services (VAS) are projected to reach US$2.3 billion in 2018. NSR expects the high resolution optical imagery market will remain strong, but lower cost mid-resolution imagery will grow at a faster rate.
EO programs and applications have attracted wide attention through homeland and food security, environmental and climate change programs, as well as through the emergence of free web portals featuring powerful satellite imagery. The largest EO data clients are still governments, which represent more than 50 percent of total sales of satellite operators, but there are prime industrial users in the energy and agricultural sectors. Looking into the future, NSR expects the most promising applications to be in the areas of environmental monitoring, land management, natural disaster response, insurance and real estate, and tourism. The associated expected increase in the number of satellites in-orbit will boost satellite manufacturing revenues, which are forecast to reach US$1.7 billion in 2018, buoyed by the rising tide of demand from developing countries like Vietnam, Malaysia, Kazakhstan, and South Africa. However, NSR expects spacecraft to become somewhat commoditized as lower cost mini- and small- EO satellites are launched.