Pakistan urged to build a satellite-data economy, not just launch satellites

An opinion piece by AI and sustainability policy analyst Naveed R Khan argues that Pakistan should shift its space policy from launches to the use of satellite data. He cites OECD estimates of $550-600 billion in global space revenues in 2025 and WEF/McKinsey projections of $1.8 trillion by 2035, with growth concentrated in communications, positioning, navigation, timing and Earth observation.\n\nHe notes Pakistan launched PRSC-EO1 in January 2025 and PRSC-EO2 and PRSC-EO3 in 2026, and points to uses in agriculture, flood and water monitoring, urban planning and insurance. He proposes four steps: a national geospatial data commons with open licensing and APIs, government as an early customer, SUPARCO acting as a market-maker through a space-data accelerator, and proper measurement of the space economy.

Why it matters: Open Earth-observation data, now about 70% of active-mission output according to the OECD, lets countries without their own satellites build analytics businesses. The argument for data commons, public procurement and local capacity applies equally to emerging space nations elsewhere.