Week in Space Data, every Friday.
Space industry figures, each with its publisher, a link to the source and the year it describes.
Checked October 11, 2026 | Sources include Novaspace, the Space Foundation, SIA, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, Jonathan McDowell, CelesTrak and Seraphim
Reference data as of 2023–2026, periodically reviewed · Headline figures: Space Foundation (economy, launches and government spending, 2025), CelesTrak (satellites, October 2026), U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (jobs, 2023), Seraphim (investment, 2025)
Source: Launch Library 2 via the SpaceNexus launch tracker · as of Nov 11, 2026 07:40 UTC
Source: Space-Track SATCAT snapshot · as of Nov 10, 2026
Novaspace’s 12th Space Economy Report puts the global space economy at $626.4 billion in 2025.
Source: Novaspace · figure for 2025 · published January 29, 2026
The Space Foundation’s estimate for 2025 is $686 billion (rounded from $685.6 billion), up 12% on 2024. Publishers define the space economy differently, so their totals differ.
Source: Space Foundation, The State of the Global Space Economy · figure for 2025 · published July 2026
Novaspace projects growth from $626.4 billion in 2025 to $1.01 trillion by 2034, a 5.5% compound annual growth rate.
Source: Novaspace · figure for 2034 projection · published January 29, 2026
The World Economic Forum and McKinsey & Company project $1.8 trillion by 2035, up from $630 billion in 2023 and growing about 9% a year, built largely on communications, positioning, navigation and timing, and Earth observation.
Source: World Economic Forum and McKinsey & Company · figure for 2035 projection · published April 2024
The Space Foundation’s compound annual growth rate for the space economy over the five years to 2025.
Source: Space Foundation, The State of the Global Space Economy · figure for 2020-2025 · published July 2026
Commercial activity reached $544.3 billion in 2025, 79% of the Space Foundation’s total, up 13% from $481.5 billion in 2024. Government space budgets made up the rest.
Source: Space Foundation, The State of the Global Space Economy · figure for 2025 · published July 2026
324 orbital launch attempts worldwide in 2025, up from 259 in 2024, another record year. The count leaves out SpaceX Starship test flights; Jonathan McDowell, who includes them, counts 329.
Source: Space Foundation, The State of the Global Space Economy · figure for 2025 · published July 2026
2026 orbital launch attempts to date, from the SpaceNexus launch tracker. Success rate = full successes / attempts. A partial failure (Launch Library 2: the vehicle flew but the mission did not fully succeed) counts as an attempt and not as a success; scrubs are not attempts. For the full year 2025: 315 of the 324 orbital launch attempts in 2025 were fully or partially successful. (Space Foundation, The State of the Global Space Economy)
Source: Launch Library 2 via SpaceNexus launch tracker · as of Nov 11, 2026 07:40 UTC
SpaceX flew 165 Falcon 9 missions in 2025, plus 5 Starship test flights.
Source: Jonathan McDowell, Space Activities in 2025 · figure for 2025 · published February 4, 2026
SpaceX's share of 2026 orbital launch attempts by count (123 of 262), from the SpaceNexus launch tracker. SpaceX flew 170 of the 329 orbital launch attempts in Jonathan McDowell’s 2025 count (165 Falcon 9, 5 Starship).
Source: Launch Library 2 via SpaceNexus launch tracker · as of Nov 11, 2026 07:40 UTC
Arithmetic, not a quoted price: the $74,000,000 list price of a dedicated Falcon 9 launch divided by its 22,800 kg maximum payload to low Earth orbit.
Source: Spaceflight Now (reporting SpaceX Capabilities and Services page) · figure for 2026 · published 2026-02-24
Organizations with at least one orbital launch attempt in 2025 in Jonathan McDowell’s provider table, from SpaceX and China’s state launch academies to newer entrants such as Isar Aerospace, Gilmour Space and Innospace.
Source: Jonathan McDowell, Space Activities in 2025 · figure for 2025 · published February 4, 2026
Records in CelesTrak’s active satellite catalogue, measured October 2026 (16,700 on October 11, 2026). A dated floor, not a live count.
Source: CelesTrak · figure for October 2026 · published October 11, 2026
Of 12,988 Starlink satellites launched, 11,117 were working in orbit on October 11, 2026, by Jonathan McDowell’s count. Starlink is by far the largest satellite constellation.
Source: Jonathan McDowell, Starlink Statistics · figure for October 2026 · published October 11, 2026
4,526 payloads were launched in 2025, up from 2,863 in 2024; 3,720 of them were US-owned.
Source: Jonathan McDowell, Space Activities in 2025 · figure for 2025 · published February 4, 2026
Starlink made up 66% of the 14,132 satellites Jonathan McDowell assessed as active on December 13, 2025.
Source: Jonathan McDowell, Space Activities in 2025 · figure for December 2025 · published February 4, 2026
Amazon’s first-generation Amazon Leo constellation (formerly Project Kuiper) is authorized for 3,232 satellites (3,236 when first granted in 2020). The FCC kept its full-deployment milestone at July 30, 2029; by its July 2, 2026 launch, 398 had been launched (Wikipedia list of Amazon Leo launches).
Source: Light Reading · figure for 2026 · published June 8, 2026
Government space spending across 53 government space budgets reached $141 billion in 2025, up 7.4% from $131 billion in 2024.
Source: Space Foundation, The State of the Global Space Economy · figure for 2025 · published July 2026
The United States spent $78.3 billion, 57% of all government space spending and 1.4% more than in 2024.
Source: Space Foundation, The State of the Global Space Economy · figure for 2025 · published July 2026
Congress funded NASA at $24.438 billion for fiscal 2026, roughly its FY2025 level of $24.838 billion, rejecting a proposed cut to $18.8 billion. The bill was signed on January 23, 2026.
Source: SpacePolicyOnline · figure for FY2026 · published January 25, 2026
Estimated US national security space spending, including intelligence agencies, rose slightly to $50.2 billion in 2025, $800 million more than in 2024.
Source: Space Foundation, The State of the Global Space Economy · figure for 2025 · published July 2026
ESA’s budget for 2025 was €7.68 billion. For 2026 ESA announced a budget of €8.26 billion.
Source: European Space Agency · figure for 2025 · published November 2025
China’s space outlay for 2025 is estimated at $19 billion, about 0.25% of its GDP and 10.3% more than in 2024. China publishes no full space budget, so this is an estimate.
Source: Space Foundation, The State of the Global Space Economy · figure for 2025 · published July 2026
Private industries in the US space economy employed 373,000 full- and part-time workers in 2023.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis · figure for 2023 · published March 31, 2025
The space economy accounted for $142.5 billion, or 0.5%, of US GDP in 2023, and $240.9 billion of gross output.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis · figure for 2023 · published March 31, 2025
Private-sector compensation in the US space economy was $57.9 billion in 2023. BEA has said it will no longer produce these statistics regularly, so 2023 is the latest year.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis · figure for 2023 · published March 31, 2025
Investors put $12.4 billion into space technology companies across 604 deals in 2025, above the previous peak of $10.9 billion in 2021, by Seraphim’s count. Trackers define the sector differently and report different totals.
Source: Seraphim Space Index, Q4 2025 · figure for 2025 · published January 2026
US companies captured 60% of SpaceTech investment in 2025, $7.3 billion, about 130% more than in 2024.
Source: Seraphim Space Index, Q4 2025 · figure for 2025 · published January 2026
Market capitalization at the last SPCX quote SpaceNexus fetched. SpaceX listed on Nasdaq (SPCX) on June 12, 2026, raising $85.7B. Priced $135/share on June 11 at about $1.77T; closed its first day near $161 (about $2.1T), the largest IPO in history. $75B base deal plus the underwriters' option.
Source: SPCX quote via SpaceNexus stock cache · as of Nov 11, 2026 07:32 UTC
Satellite services revenue, including a 4% rise in remote sensing revenue, totaled $105.0 billion in 2025.
Source: Satellite Industry Association (SSIR 2026) · figure for 2025 · published May 13, 2026
Ground network and GNSS equipment revenue totaled $165.2 billion in 2025, 6% more than in 2024.
Source: Satellite Industry Association (SSIR 2026) · figure for 2025 · published May 13, 2026
Satellite manufacturing revenue grew marginally to $20.4 billion in 2025.
Source: Satellite Industry Association (SSIR 2026) · figure for 2025 · published May 13, 2026
Worldwide commercial launch revenue rose 33% to $12.4 billion in 2025.
Source: Satellite Industry Association (SSIR 2026) · figure for 2025 · published May 13, 2026
Services built on satellite positioning, navigation and timing generated an estimated $279.9 billion in 2025, up 18.3% from $236.6 billion in 2024, per the EU Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA).
Source: EUSPA, via the Space Foundation report · figure for 2025 · published July 2026
SpaceNexus aggregates real-time data from 36 named data sources. Track launches, markets, satellites, and more with our intelligence platform.
Every reference figure links to the report or page it was checked against, with the year it describes and the date the source published it. Publishers define the space economy differently (Novaspace, the Space Foundation, the Satellite Industry Association and the World Economic Forum each report a different total), so compare figures from the same publisher. Launch counts differ by whether SpaceX Starship test flights are included. Figures we could not trace to a source were removed in the review of October 11, 2026.