Report: Space insurance in profit for 2021
March 9, 2022
By Chris Forrester
A report from Seradata (Satellite Database & Space Market Analysis) says that 2021 was a good year for the space insurance industry.
Serdata’s SpaceTrak database is used by most of the world’s Space insurance underwriters and brokers for launch and spacecraft reliability information, historical Space insurance claims and loss values.
The numbers show that the insurance sector brought in some $500 million in gross premiums last year, and paid out about $360 million for projected claims and losses.
In 2020 the sector just about broke even while in 2019 there were heavy losses.
The largest claim last year was for $225 million in respect of the SiriusXM SXM-7 craft which was a total loss. Seradata also says there might be a claim because of last year’s “drift” of Measat-3 in its geostationary orbit although the full impact of this event has yet to be determined. There is also a claim for solar-array damage to Indonesia’s PSN-6 (Pasifik Satelit Nusantara) communications satellite by a suspected meteoroid strike during the Perseid meteor shower.