Co-creating and directing Innovation Ecosystems? NASA's changing approach to public-private partnerships in low-earth orbit

International audienceA recent report from NASA's office of the chief technologist positions a self-sustained "low-earth-orbit ecosystem" as a desirable objective for NASA's human spaceflight policy and linking to its larger aims of deeper exploration of the solar system. The report follows a wave of mission shifts and space policy directives which emphasize that the private sector should be given more power and receive public agency financial support to stimulate space services. To understand how US space innovation activities are changing, and to be able to make assessments and policy recommendations, we use an innovation ecosystems approach to help understand the types of relationships between actors in low-earth-orbit and to determine the ramifications for US space policy. Our findings reveal four new forms of relationships between NASAA and other parties in the emerging innovation ecosystem and we discuss how these lead to policy challenges for NASA as a mission-oriented public agency with the new additional objective of creating an economic zone in orbit