Pharmaceutical corporations already occupy a sizeable payload portion of satellites in space. And not just for exploration of space and Earth. The absence of gravity causes crystals to grow unusually large and with almost perfect form, without touching the walls of their containers.
Read MoreIt really wasn’t that long ago when the two greatest superpowers were vying to put satellites into space. Now, 50 nations have their own satellites in low Earth orbit. If you’re a Thailand, say, you can call Space Systems/Loral, a Canadian-owned company based in Palo Alto, California, and tell them you want to put a satellite into geostationary orbit for television broadcasting or military communications. You can have the thing in orbit 25,000 miles above Earth within two years.
