The European Commission says the money will be needed beyond 2014 to raise the number of spacecraft in orbit to 30.

BBC: Galileo price rises 1.9bn euros

As technologies advance, he said, the Pentagon can reduce the number of drones in orbit, while still increasing the video, data and other information being transmitted.

NPR: Military Weighs Cutbacks, Shifts In Drone Programs

Besides spy satellites, Israel also has a number of communications satellites in orbit.

BBC: Israel launches Ofek 9 spy satellite

One part, space tourism, is a luxury service that is, in any case, unlikely to go beyond low-Earth orbit at best (the cost of getting even as far as the moon would reduce the number of potential clients to a handful).

ECONOMIST: Inner space is useful. Outer space is history

Next year's launch of two new satellites into orbit should also help with bandwidth issues and allow the launch of new HD channels to compete with the large number currently carried by cable and competitor satellite company Dish.

ENGADGET: DirecTV posts Q3 results HD

Dr Krag and colleagues at Esoc, like a number of teams around the world, are now busy modelling the decay in Phobo-Grunt's orbit.

BBC: Video tracks stricken Mars probe