How the Space Score is computed

1. The formula

1. For every company, each metric below is read from our tables and classified as measured, missing (it applies, but we do not hold the data) or not applicable (it does not fit the business).
2. Each measured value becomes a percentile rank (0–100) among the companies measured on that metric: the lowest value scores 0, the highest 100, ties share the average of their positions. Because ranks ignore scale, no log transform or outlier cap is needed, and a single giant cannot compress everyone else.
3. A pillar score is the average of its measured metrics.
4. The total is the weighted average of the pillars that apply to the company, times 10. Not-applicable pillars are dropped and the remaining weights re-normalised. An applicable pillar with no data counts at 50, the midpoint — so a gap in our data neither lifts a company (as dropping it would, if its other pillars are strong) nor sinks it.
5. A company is ranked only with data in at least 2 pillars and at least 50% of its applicable weight backed by data. Otherwise it is scored and shown here, but left out of the leaderboard and the Top 25. Confidence is High at 90% coverage or more with three or more pillars, Medium for other ranked companies, and Insufficient data for unranked ones.
6. A company is ranked only when our data shows measurable space activity: at least $10M of space-coded federal obligations in three years, or space-coded awards making up at least 10% of its federal obligations; or an orbital launch attempt; or a space-segment profile sector (every sector except general defense) without evidence to the contrary. A company with $25M or more of visible federal obligations, under 10% of it space-coded, and no launch fails the test whatever its sector. Companies that fail are scored and listed, but not ranked.
7. Ranking order: total (high first), then coverage (high first), then name (A–Z).

Pillar weights sum to 100%. There are no other weights, bonuses or adjustments.

Because each pillar contributes 10 × weight × pillar score ÷ the applicable weight, a change in the total splits exactly into per-pillar changes (plus under a point of rounding). The weekly movers edition uses that split, and the stored input values, to say why each company moved.

2. Pillars and metrics

Thresholds used above: hiring change needs 28 days between snapshots and 5+ open roles; the federal trend uses a $250K floor.

3. Tier labels

• Elite (900–1000): Averages at or above the 90th percentile of the roster across the pillars it has data for.
• 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 — 321 scored today, 155 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.

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.

• “China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation” → casc: LL2 long name for CASC.
• “China Rocket Co. Ltd.” → casc: CASC commercial-launch subsidiary (Jielong); attributed to CASC.
• “ExPace” → casic: CASIC commercial-launch subsidiary (Kuaizhou); attributed to CASIC.
• “Russian Federal Space Agency (ROSCOSMOS)” → roscosmos: LL2 name for Roscosmos.
• “Northrop Grumman Space Systems” → northrop-grumman: Northrop Grumman launch business (Minotaur, Antares).
• “Orienspace Technology” → orienspace: LL2 long name.
• “Space Pioneer” → space-pioneer: Profile name adds the legal name (Tianbing Technology).

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 on this page.

6. Known limitations

• Scale measures the whole company. A diversified group (Lockheed Martin, Honeywell, Safran) is scored on its full headcount, revenue and market value, not on its space business alone, because none of our sources splits them out. Government space demand counts space-coded awards only, and the space-activity gate keeps companies with no measurable space activity out of the ranking — those are the corrections for this.
• The space-activity gate can only use what we measure. A company in the general defense sector whose space work we cannot see — not searched on USAspending, headquartered outside the U.S., or with its awards under a legal name we do not attribute — is scored but not ranked, even when it is a real space business (today this includes Boeing, Airbus Defence & Space and Thales Alenia Space). The fix is better input data, not an exception for the company.
• Government space demand sees U.S. federal prime awards only — no other governments, no subcontracts, and no classified work (much NRO and some Space Force spending never appears on USAspending.gov). Space-coding follows the government’s own codes and is a conservative floor: space work filed under a non-space code (for example the mixed “guided missile and space vehicle” NAICS codes) is not counted.
• Our award matcher prefers a missed award to a wrong one. Companies whose names are too generic to search safely are not searched, and some companies’ federal work sits under legal names we do not yet attribute (for example Raytheon’s and Collins Aerospace’s awards appear under RTX and Rockwell Collins entities). Where the search saw similar-named recipients but attributed none, the metric is treated as missing rather than zero; where it saw none at all, a zero is recorded.
• Headcount and undated profile valuations are maintained on company profiles and can lag the company by months. Reported revenue exists only for companies that publish it, which excludes most private companies.
• The hiring metric covers only companies whose applicant-tracking boards we snapshot daily — a few dozen — so for most companies it is missing.
• The launch record begins on 2025-01-01. Launches are attributed to the provider named by Launch Library 2; subsidiary brands are attributed to the parent we profile (listed below). Blank-provider launches are not attributed.
• A profile that carries its parent’s ticker is scored on the parent’s market value and share price (Collins Aerospace carries RTX). We flag rather than silently correct such profile data.
• Every metric is a percentile rank within the tracked roster, so a company’s score can move when other companies’ data changes, and it says nothing about companies we do not profile.
• Not used, because we do not hold them reliably: satellite fleet counts (our satellite-asset table is empty), patents, news mentions (company tagging covers too few companies), and insider or 5%-holder filings (held for listed companies only, and not a measure of the business).
• The score is descriptive. It is not a forecast, a credit rating or investment advice.

7. The exact queries

These are the statements the scorer runs against our PostgreSQL database, verbatim. Share-price history is fetched separately from Yahoo Finance for listed tickers.

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",
  rv.revenue as "reportedRevenue", rv.year as "reportedRevenueYear",
  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.rounds, 0) as "fundingRoundsOnRecord", coalesce(fr.raised24m, 0) as "capitalRaised24m",
  js_start."activeJobs" as "openRolesStart", js_start.date as "openRolesStartDate",
  js_end."activeJobs" as "openRolesLatest", js_end.date as "openRolesLatestDate"
from "CompanyProfile" c
left join "FederalAwardCoverage" fac on fac."companyId" = c.id
left join lateral (
  select r.revenue::float8 as revenue, r.year
  from "RevenueEstimate" r
  where r."companyId" = c.id and r.revenue is not null and r."confidenceLevel" = 'reported' and r.quarter is null
  order by r.year desc limit 1
) 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
  order by f.date desc limit 1
) pv on true
left join lateral (
  select count(*)::int as rounds,
         coalesce(sum(f.amount) filter (where f.date >= now() - interval '24 months'), 0)::float8 as raised24m
  from "FundingRound" f where f."companyId" = c.id
) fr 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
  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

select
  e.agency,
  count(*)::int as "attemptsOnRecord",
  count(*) filter (where e."launchDate" >= now() - interval '365 days')::int as "attempts12m",
  count(*) filter (where e."launchDate" >= now() - interval '365 days' and e.status = 'completed')::int as "successes12m"
from "SpaceEvent" e
where e.status in ('completed', 'failed')
  and e.rocket is not null
  and e."launchDate" >= '2025-01-01'
  and e."launchDate" <= now()
group by e.agency

8. Every company’s breakdown

Pillar values are 0–100; “no data” counts as 50; “n/a” is dropped. Choose a company for every metric’s raw value, percentile and the reason any input is missing.