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The Space Foundation has released its Q2 2022 Space Report in which it states the global space economy was US$469B in 2021, a 9% increase over the previous year.
At first, the size of the increase took us by surprise as we were under the impression the 2020 global space economy was US$447B according to what the Space Foundation had previously reported. That would have meant a 4.9% increase year-over-year. However, after contacting the Space Foundation, a spokesperson informed us that they had revised their 2020 calculation downward to US$431B late last year. That information does not appear to be publicly available on their website.
As we explored in a previous article, the size of the global space economy varies depending on the data used by the various organizations who publish these reports. When it comes to the global space economy, the Space Foundation is usually on the higher end.
A 9% increase year-over-year is good and is before inflation began to rise dramatically.
Access to the full report is US$250 or you can purchase an annual subscription to access Space Report data on an ongoing basis.
Some of the highlights from the report:
- Most of the money generated by the space industry came in the commercial sector, which saw a 6.4% boost in revenues, with more than $224 billion coming from products and services delivered by space firms and nearly $138 billion spent on infrastructure and support for commercial space enterprises.
- Part of the increase comes from an overall 19% boost in government spending on military and civil space programs, including an 18% increase by the U.S., an estimated 23% increase by China, and a 36% boost by India.
“The incredible growth of the global space economy is a testament to the talented professionals who innovate new ideas for space every day to help humanity and the ever-growing reliance on those benefits from space for all the people of Earth,” said Space Foundation CEO Tom Zelibor. “The booming space industry will need to expand its workforce to sustain this kind of growth. That means delivering the message to everyone, from kindergarten on up, that they have a place in space at one of the most exciting times since we first reached for the stars.”
The Space Foundation also stated that the “The Q2 edition also offers an analysis of hypersonic missile development, and the role space assets will play. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine saw the first acknowledged battlefield use of hypersonic weapons, stealthy missiles that travel at more than five times the speed of sound and slip through American defenses designed to spot and track intercontinental ballistic missiles. That has driven the Pentagon to purchase a new constellation of satellites to spot hypersonic weapons and develop new defenses, which could include satellites to knock down the weapons. The weapons have also driven policy debate about the hypersonic arms race and whether international pacts could curb the use of hypersonic missiles.”
