NEW YORK–Financiers urged space and satellite executives to pay closer attention to the details of their structured business plans if they want to gain financial backing for space ventures. Wall Street analysts said that simply knowing the market and establishing a rough timeline for investment return is no longer enough.

Even though investors’ appetite for space industry deals remains strong, they are becoming increasingly savvy, given recent project failures. Armand Musey, senior satellite analyst with Banc of America Securities LLC, said today’s investors have begun to separate the different satellite sectors and a failure in one may scar no longer projects in other sectors of the industry.

“You must be able now to explain in great detail the nuances of your business plan,” said Brian Lerner, head of the telecommunications project finance unit of Pricewaterhousecoopers. “Likewise, business developers must keep an eye on financial market swings and strategically pick an appropriate time to approach it for financing.”

In addition, financiers urged industry executives to form strong sponsor partnerships. “We mean sponsors who actually have an interest in the inner-workings of the project from the very beginning to the very end,” Lerner added.

Frank Dibello, vice chairman and managing director of SpaceVest, a venture capital fund for space projects, concurred with Lerner, adding that a good project that is structured right from the beginning and can remain agile in the marketplace is key to gaining capital.

“Time to market is now more important than ever before,” Dibello said. “If you are going to push something into the market that the market cannot hold, then that is a mitigation risk investors will not gamble with. Business execution is the number one reason why past failures within this industry occurred.”