A Giant Victory for Space Exploration, A Small Win for Insurance.

A Giant Victory for Space Exploration, A Small Win for Insurance.

Congratulations again to Space X and NASA as they successfully launched the Crew Dragon spacecraft last week! Cheers to the astronauts, the team at mission control and the countless others who made this possible.

This was the first privately developed spacecraft that launched humans into the earths orbit, launch of the commercial crew era. A project that was 6 years in the making and is a small part of the objectives of deep space exploration.

Another “first”.

What it did make me think about, is all the “firsts” that are made easier because of insurance. This one included. Given the cost of the rocket itself isn’t something that insurance can cover (yet), it does provide the $ circa 100 million liability cover in the launch contract.

Stereotypically insurance is considered an expense, a contractual requirement. When in fact it provides the opportunity to spread high severity and low frequency risks.

Since my interest tilts towards constructions risks, I believe a lot of the projects have been supported or to a great extent been made possible because of the capacity provided by the insurance industry. This goes back to some of the projects Ive seen in the middle east - megastructures, largest O&G refineries, worlds tallest buildings, crazy tunnels in difficult terrain as well as key infrastructure construction valued at billions of dollars.

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