How the Space Score is computed

2. Pillars and metrics

3. Tier labels

• Elite (900–1000): Averages at or above the 90th percentile of the roster across the pillars that apply to it (a pillar without data counts at the roster median).
• Leader (750–899): Averages between the 75th and 90th percentile of the roster on the measured inputs.
• Contender (600–749): Averages between the 60th and 75th percentile of the roster on the measured inputs.
• Emerging (400–599): Averages between the 40th and 60th percentile of the roster: the middle of the pack.
• Early Stage (200–399): Averages between the 20th and 40th percentile of the roster on the measured inputs.
• Developing (0–199): Averages below the 20th percentile of the roster on the measured inputs, usually small or very early companies.

4. Who is scored

Every company profile we track with status active or pre-revenue (419 scored today, 147 ranked). Government agencies (profile sector: agency) are not companies and are not scored.

Held back from scoring

• ball-aerospace: Acquired by BAE Systems in February 2024 and now operates as BAE Systems Space & Mission Systems. Its profile and federal-award search still use the retired name, so its inputs no longer describe the business.
• aerojet-rocketdyne: A subsidiary of L3Harris Technologies, which acquired it in 2023. L3Harris is ranked, so ranking Aerojet Rocketdyne separately would count the same business twice.
• terran-orbital: A subsidiary of Lockheed Martin, which acquired it in 2024. Lockheed Martin is ranked, so ranking Terran Orbital separately would count the same business twice.
• spaceflight-inc: Acquired by Firefly Aerospace in 2023. Its profile still describes the independent company, so its inputs no longer describe the business.
• lumen-orbit: Lumen Orbit renamed itself Starcloud. Starcloud has its own profile, so this one is a duplicate and is not ranked.
• astra-space: Taken private in 2024. The valuation on file dates from its time as a listed company and no longer describes the business, so it is held out of the ranking until its record is refreshed.
• outpost-space: A duplicate of the Outpost Technologies profile: the same company, with the same website (outpost.space). Outpost Technologies holds its funding and federal-award records, so this second profile is not ranked.
• roscosmos: Russia’s state space agency: a state corporation that holds the government’s authority and budget for the national space programme. Government agencies are not ranked (DLR and MBRSC are held out for the same reason), and its own enterprises, such as RSC Energia and Khrunichev, are scored on their own profiles.

Display-name corrections (label only; the score is unaffected)

• amazon-kuiper shown as Amazon Leo: Amazon renamed Project Kuiper to Amazon Leo in 2025.

Launch-provider attribution aliases

Launch Library 2 agency names that differ from our profile names. Every other provider is matched on its exact name.

5. Update cadence and editions

• Inputs are measured and scores computed at most once a day (a scheduled run at 02:10 UTC). Every page shows when the inputs were measured, never when the page was rendered.
• A daily reading of every company is stored with the methodology version, forming the Space Score history.
• The quarterly Top 25 edition is named for the quarter in which its inputs were measured. It updates daily during the quarter and freezes when the quarter ends. Rank movement is shown only against a previous edition computed under the same methodology version.
• Any change to a metric, weight, window or rule bumps the methodology version and is recorded in the change log below. Since version 4 a test enforces this: it fingerprints the rulebook and fails if the rules change while the version number does not.

Change log

1. Version 5 · 2026-10-07 · SEC space revenue and verified subcontracts as space-activity evidence

   • Space-activity gate: space revenue a company reports in its own SEC annual report now counts as evidence of space activity. We read the latest 10-K, 20-F or 40-F filed on the company’s own CIK (before its first annual report, a Form 10, S-1 or F-1 with audited annual statements) for a fiscal year that ended within the last two calendar years, and take the largest full-year revenue line tagged with a business line whose label names space and nothing else. That line is tested against total revenue with the gate’s existing thresholds: $100M at any share, $10M that is also 1% of revenue, or $250K that is also 10%. A line labelled “Defense and Space” or “Space and Defense” does not count, because it cannot tell space revenue from defense revenue. A subsidiary cannot use its parent’s filing.
   • An SEC entry counts only after a second check that the stored figure matches the filing, and every entry, confirmed or pending, is listed in the evidence register on this page with its filing, accession number and business line. Nobody can request an entry or override the label rule: the same scan and the same rule decide for every company with a CIK, and an edge case is a methodology change, never a decision about one company.
   • Space-activity gate: verified federal subcontracts now count beside prime awards. Subcontracts reported to USAspending.gov whose recipient is registered under one of the company’s UEIs (never a name match), under a prime award the government codes as space work, are added to the company’s space-coded prime obligations; all its subcontracts are added to all its prime obligations; and the same thresholds apply over three years. Every reported action counts, modifications and deobligations included, after exact duplicates are dropped, and a subcontract reported above its prime award’s total obligation is discarded as a reporting error. Like SEC entries, a company’s subcontract totals count only after a second check confirms them, and only while both the confirmed totals and today’s totals pass; until then they are listed in the evidence register as pending. The Government pillar still scores prime awards only.

6. Known limitations

Said plainly, from today’s figures

• Government space demand: the roster median is 0, because most companies we have searched hold no space-coded federal awards. So a U.S. company we have not matched in USAspending (not searched, or similar names our matcher did not attribute) is treated like the typical company: one with no federal space work. If it does hold federal space contracts, its score understates them.
• Momentum, for most companies measured on it, is the 12-month federal space trend alone. We track the job boards of 52 companies, and today 3 of them have a measurable like-for-like 90-day change in open roles (enough history on one counting basis and enough open roles); so of the 40 companies measured on Momentum, 37 are measured on the federal trend alone. One award arriving or ending can swing that trend, so Momentum is noisy.
• A company listed outside the U.S. usually has Government not applicable (no U.S. federal award record) and Capital not applicable (it is listed), so unless a second pillar is measured it is scored but not ranked. Today that is 18 companies: AAC Clyde Space, APT Satellite, Creotech Instruments, Dassault Aviation, Elbit Systems, Eutelsat, Gilat Satellite Networks, Hanwha Systems, ispace inc., Korea Aerospace Industries, MDA Space, OHB SE, Safran, SES, Space42, Synspective, Telebras, Telesat.
• Companies that pass the space-activity gate but are not ranked on thin data, today, with data in fewer than 2 pillars: AAC Clyde Space, Aerospacelab, AIRMO, Antaris, Applied Atomics, APT Satellite, Arabsat, Arinna, Asteroid Mining Corporation, Astrolab, Astronstone, AstroX, Aule Space, Bellatrix Aerospace, BioOrbit, Blackswan Space, Bradford Space, Cailabs, Canada Rocket Company, Capsule Corporation, Carbon Mapper, Cascade Space, Charter Space, ClearSpace SA, Constellation Space, Constellr, Copenhagen Suborbitals, Cosmoleap, Creotech Instruments, Dassault Aviation, Deep Space Energy, deltaVision, Dhruva Space, Digantara, Dispatch, ElevationSpace, Embratel Star One, ENPULSION, EtherealX, Eutelsat, Exotrail, Flexell Space, Flexitech Aerospace, FOSSA Systems, Foundational, GHGSat, Gilat Satellite Networks, GITAI, HEO, Hydrosat, Infostellar, Insera Solution, InspeCity, Interstellar Technologies, iSpace (China), ispace inc., ISPTech, JAOPS, Jiuzhou Yunjian, Kepler Aerospace, Kirkhill, Korea Aerospace Industries, Lanteris Space Systems, Leanspace, LEAP Space, LegendSpace, Letara, Lonestar Data Holdings, Longshot Space, Manastu Space, MDA Space, NanoAvionics, NewOrbit, OHB SE, Open Cosmos, Optera, OrbitAID Aerospace, Orbital Lasers, Orbital Matter, Orienspace, ORiS, Outlier Space, Oxford Space Systems, Pale Blue, Pangea Aerospace, PAVE Space, Perigee Aerospace, PierSight Space, Pulsar Fusion, Pustar Aerospace, QOSMIC, Quadsat, Ramon.Space, Reditus Space, Reflex Aerospace, Ripple Aerospace, Rocket Factory Augsburg, RSC Energia, RUAG Space, Safran, Sateliot, Satlabs Space Systems, Satlyt, Satrec Initiative, SatSure, SatVu, SES, SkyFi, Skykraft, Skynopy, Skyrora, Southern Launch, Space BD, Space Pioneer (Tianbing Technology), Space42, Spaceflux, SpaceIL, SpacePharma, Spacety, SSC, Stellar Alpina, SUiCTE, SWISSto12, Synspective, TakeMe2Space, TASI Group, Telebras, TelePIX, Telesat, Telespazio, Thales Alenia Space, The Compression Company, The Exploration Company, TiSPACE, U-Space, Ubotica, Unastella, UNIVITY, Ursa Space Systems, Virgin Galactic, Vyoma, Warpspace, Wyvern, Xoople, Zenk Space, Zero 2 Infinity; with under 50% of their applicable weight backed by data: Aethero, Agile Space Industries, Antares Industries, Array Labs, Astro Digital, Beyond Reach Labs, Citra Space, Diffraqtion, Endeavor Optical Networks, Infinite Orbits, Juno Propulsion, Kapta Space, Lux Aeterna, Magdrive, mPower Technology, Northwood Space, NovaWurks, Observable Space, Orbital, Orbite, OroraTech, Quindar, Ravee Optics, Samara Aerospace, Skybound Medtech, Sophia Space, Xona Space Systems, Zeno Power; with no measured pillar at all, so “Not scored”: Aldoria, Archangel Lightworks, ArcSpace, ArkEdge Space, Aspect Aerospace, Astradyne, ATMOS Space Cargo, Basalt, BlueStar Optical Domain, Chang Guang Satellite Technology, Chuanyuezhe, Circuits Integrated Hellas, DCUBED, Deep Blue Aerospace, EDGX, Emposat, ExLabs, GalaxySpace, Geespace, HeXing Optical Link, Hongqing Technology, Indra Space, Innovative Space Carrier, ISISPACE, JG Starcom, JP Donovan, Kick Space Technologies, LC60, LiveEO, Look Up Space, MaiaSpace, Mantis Space, Marlan Space, Maverick Space Systems, MinoSpace, Miwei Technology, Nayuta Space, Neo Space Group, NordSpace, Reaction Dynamics, Sanyark Space, Satleo Labs, SEOPS, Solafune, Space Epoch, SpaceSail (Yuanxin Satellite), Spark Space, StarRF, Starry Development, Sybilla Technologies, TerraByte AI, TerraSpark, Tianyu Xingkong, Trusted Space, Unseenlabs, Venturi Space, Weiguang Qihang, Xingce Weilai, Xingchen Daohe, Xingweixun, Xingyi Lianxin, Xiphera, Yiwei Yuhang, Z-Trak Space, Zenno Astronautics. Each one’s breakdown says which inputs are missing and why.

Evidence register

The space-activity gate’s SEC and subcontract evidence, entry by entry. Space revenue is read from the XBRL data of each company’s own annual report by the same scan for every company with a CIK; an entry counts only once a second check has confirmed that the stored figure matches the filing. Subcontracts are read from USAspending.gov by registered UEI only, and a company’s subcontract totals count only once a second check has confirmed them, and only while they still match. Nothing here changes a score: it decides only whether a company can be ranked.

Space revenue in SEC annual reports

• Astra Space (Pending confirmation, not counted)

  Business line “Space Products”: space revenue $3.9M of $3.9M total revenue, fiscal year ending 2023-12-31. Meets the gate’s thresholds.

  Form 10-K, CIK 0001814329, accession 0000950170-24-045209; fact us-gaap:RevenueFromContractWithCustomerExcludingAssessedTax with srt:ProductOrServiceAxis = astr:SpaceProductsMember.

• Comtech Telecommunications (Pending confirmation, not counted)

  Business line “Satellite And Space Segment Communications”: space revenue $269.3M of $499.5M total revenue, fiscal year ending 2025-07-31. Meets the gate’s thresholds.

  Form 10-K, CIK 0000023197, accession 0000023197-25-000080; fact us-gaap:Revenues with us-gaap:StatementBusinessSegmentsAxis = cmtl:SatelliteAndSpaceSegmentCommunicationsMember.

• EchoStar (Pending confirmation, not counted)

  Business line “Broadband and Satellite Services”: space revenue $1,456.1M of $15,005.0M total revenue, fiscal year ending 2025-12-31. Meets the gate’s thresholds.

  Form 10-K, CIK 0001415404, accession ; fact us-gaap:RevenueFromContractWithCustomerIncludingAssessedTax with us-gaap:StatementBusinessSegmentsAxis = sats:BroadbandAndSatelliteServicesMember.

7. The exact queries

These are the statements the scorer runs against our PostgreSQL database, verbatim. Funding rounds are read one by one and our code then keeps only equity rounds, using the same test as the funding tracker. Federal awards are read one by one and our code then classifies each as space-coded or not, using the rule in the Government space demand metric above.

select
  c.slug, c.name, c.sector, c.country, c."isPublic" as "isPublic", c.ticker, c.exchange,
  c."ownershipType" as "ownershipType", c."parentCompany" as "parentCompany",
  c."employeeCount"::float8 as "employeeCount", c."employeeRange" as "employeeRange",
  c."marketCap"::float8 as "marketCap", c."lastVerified" as "lastVerified",
  c.valuation::float8 as "profileValuation",
  coalesce(rv.rows, '[]'::json) as "reportedRevenueRows",
  pv.val as "roundValuation", pv.date as "roundValuationDate",
  (fac.status = 'searched') as "federalSearched",
  coalesce(fac."recipientsSeen", 0) as "federalRecipientsSeen",
  coalesce(fac."recipientsMatched", 0) as "federalRecipientsMatched",
  coalesce(fr.kinds, '[]'::json) as "fundingRoundKinds",
  js_start."activeJobs" as "openRolesStart", js_start.date as "openRolesStartDate",
  js_end."activeJobs" as "openRolesLatest", js_end.date as "openRolesLatestDate",
  jrs.since as "openRolesBasisSince"
from "CompanyProfile" c
left join "FederalAwardCoverage" fac on fac."companyId" = c.id
left join lateral (
  -- every company-reported annual figure on record; the loader picks one per
  -- fiscal year with selectReportedRevenue() (src/lib/space-score-data.ts):
  -- duplicates, conflicting figures and rows of unknown currency are settled
  -- there by a published rule, never by the order Postgres returns them in
  select json_agg(json_build_object(
    'id', r.id, 'year', r.year, 'revenue', r.revenue::float8, 'source', r.source,
    'notes', left(coalesce(r.notes, ''), 200), 'createdAt', r."createdAt"
  ) order by r.year desc, r.id) as rows
  from "RevenueEstimate" r
  where r."companyId" = c.id and r.revenue is not null and r.revenue > 0
    and r."confidenceLevel" = 'reported' and r.quarter is null
) rv on true
left join lateral (
  select f."postValuation"::float8 as val, f.date
  from "FundingRound" f
  where f."companyId" = c.id and f."postValuation" is not null and f."postValuation" > 0
    and (f.source is null or f.source <> 'self_reported' or f."reviewStatus" = 'editor-approved') and coalesce(f."reviewStatus", '') not in ('self-reported-pending', 'self-reported-rejected')
  order by f.date desc limit 1
) pv on true
left join lateral (
  -- every published round's kind, at any date: the loader counts the rounds
  -- that pass countsTowardCapitalRaised() (equity only), and that count
  -- decides whether the Capital pillar applies; the capital SUM comes from
  -- SPACE_SCORE_FUNDING_SQL
  select json_agg(json_build_object('roundType', f."roundType", 'seriesLabel', f."seriesLabel")) as kinds
  from "FundingRound" f where f."companyId" = c.id
    and (f.source is null or f.source <> 'self_reported' or f."reviewStatus" = 'editor-approved') and coalesce(f."reviewStatus", '') not in ('self-reported-pending', 'self-reported-rejected')
) fr on true
left join lateral (
  -- the latest change to the basis the company's roles are counted on: the
  -- space-roles rule applied, a new job board joining a series already under
  -- way, or the snapshot's source label changing (HIRING_BASIS_SINCE_SQL in
  -- src/lib/jobs/hiring-basis-sql.ts, the twin of hiringBasisChanges()); the
  -- hiring window restarts on that day, so a board joining is never growth
  select greatest(
    -- 1. rule-changed
    (select max(l."createdAt")::date from "DataRefreshLog" l
      where l.module = 'jobs-coverage'
        and l.details like '%"kind":"relevance-changed"%'
        and l.details like '%"companyProfileSlug":"' || c.slug || '"%'),
    -- 2. board-joined: a board whose first posting came after the series began
    (select max(b.first_seen::date + 1) from (
        select min(j."createdAt") as first_seen from "SpaceJobPosting" j
        where j."companyProfileId" = c.id
          and j.source in ('greenhouse', 'lever', 'ashby', 'workday', 'clearcompany', 'pinpoint', 'bamboohr', 'rippling', 'usajobs')
          and j."paidAt" is null and j."postedByUserId" is null
        group by j.source
      ) b
      where b.first_seen::date > (select min(s0.date) from "CompanyJobSnapshot" s0 where s0."companyProfileId" = c.id)),
    -- 3. source-label-changed
    (select max(x.date) from (
        select s1.date, s1.source,
               lag(s1.source) over (order by s1.date) as prev,
               row_number() over (order by s1.date) as rn
        from "CompanyJobSnapshot" s1 where s1."companyProfileId" = c.id
      ) x
      where x.rn > 1 and x.source is distinct from x.prev)
  ) as since
) jrs on true
left join lateral (
  select s."activeJobs", s.date from "CompanyJobSnapshot" s
  where s."companyProfileId" = c.id and s.date >= (now() - interval '90 days')::date
    and s.date >= coalesce(jrs.since, date '1900-01-01')
  order by s.date asc limit 1
) js_start on true
left join lateral (
  select s."activeJobs", s.date from "CompanyJobSnapshot" s
  where s."companyProfileId" = c.id
  order by s.date desc limit 1
) js_end on true
where c.status in ('active', 'pre-revenue')
order by c.slug

8. Every company’s breakdown

Pillar values are 0–100; “no data” counts at that pillar’s roster median; “n/a” is dropped; a company with no measured pillar shows “Not scored”. Choose a company for every metric’s raw value, percentile and the reason any input is missing.