ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the American experience in commercializing an earth observation and satellite imagery industry, particularly as it touches on defence and security policy. It discusses how the United States has attempted to achieve that synergy, and will evaluate the degree of success achieved. The American case is interesting because if the US can successfully reach some sort of accommodation between military, civil and commercial space interests, it stands to achieve enormous benefits. Some analysts have noted that the United States may have sought to encourage the early creation of a commercial satellite imagery industry, in order to 'accustom people to photographs in space' and help lend legitimacy to US military reconnaissance efforts. Encouraging a commercial satellite imagery would serve to meet both of these ends. Some analysts have noted that the attempt to diversify merely let many of the subsidiary firms already engaged in intelligence-community work transfer data back to the parent corporations for use in the commercial market.
