2024
Global Space Activity by Category, 2007-2027


Based on global economic factors, Space Foundation forecasts that growth will slow slightly in 2023 to 6% before picking up for an average five-year growth of 7%. Under these conditions, the space economy would total $772 billion in 2027. This forecast incorporates existing markets in the space economy and does not predict any future disruptive technologies that could have extraordinary growth over the coming years.
Government Space Spending Growth Slows to 8% in 2022


Government space spending in 2022 totaled nearly $119 billion, 8% higher than a revised total of $110 billion in 2021. Annual growth slowed significantly from the previous year, although 2021’s decade-high growth was primarily due to many nations rebounding from spending cuts in 2020 caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Initial indications from enacted budget for 2023.
Number of FAA Licensed and Permitted Operations Worldwide by Fiscal Year, 2015-2026


The Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Office of Commercial Space Transportation and the Office of Spaceports have growing data supporting the rising pace of launches and the current strain on U.S. launch capacity.
Global Space Activity by Category, 2005-2021


For this year’s analysis, Space Foundation incorporated historical data and 2022 government spending to project the global space economy’s growth over the next five years. Using our methodology, we predict that the total could reach $639 billion by 2026. Our modeling takes a more conservative approach based on average growth of established sectors and does not factor in developing sectors such as lunar habitation or still exploratory concepts such as asteroid mining.