Derek Tournear, director of the Space Development Agency and a previous Wash100 awardee, said the rise in SDA’s budget seeks to show that the agency is a real market for space industry leaders and investors, SpaceNews reported Saturday.
SDA is building a constellation of small satellites in low Earth orbit and its requested budget for fiscal year 2024 is over $4 billion, up from approximately $20 million in 2020.
“That certainly shows that SDA as a market is real, and that market is going to be consistent at or above $4 billion a year in perpetuity,” Tournear said at a conference on Friday.
The SDA director noted that he wants space companies to view the agency as a constant market as they work to pursue other revenue streams in addition to the Department of Defense.
“I want every company that we are doing business with to have other sources of revenue other than DOD,” Tournear stated. “The only thing that I’m advocating is to make sure you don’t forget that we’re a constant market while you’re chasing these other markets.”
SDA Director Derek Tournear will deliver a keynote at the Potomac Officers Club’s 2024 Space Summit on March 5. Register here to hear Tournear and other government leaders, industry executives and other experts discuss the latest space technologies, commercial investments and urgent issues facing the space domain.
