The use of space-based global utilities, including navigation, weather, and search and rescue systems, has grown significantly over the last decade. For example, GPS unit consumption grew by approximately 25 percent per year between 1996 and 1999, generating sales revenue of $6.2 billion in 1999. Today, these systems have grown into space applications that have become almost indispensable to the civil, commercial, and military sectors, as well as most modern economies. Since 2001, satellite based search and rescue systems have saved the lives of approximately 1,500 people per year, double the 1996 rate. The number of states developing satellite-based navigation capabilities has grown, from Russia and the US in 1990, to include three new systems led by China, the EU, and Japan in 2003. The strategic value of satellite navigation was underscored by the conflict over frequencies for Galileo and GPS.

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Cowan-Sharp, Jessy, Robert Lawson et al. Space Security Index 2004. Waterloo, Ontario: Space Security Index, June 2005. [ 13 quotes ] [ page XII ]