The trend of Space Economy encompasses all activities of exploring, understanding, utilizing, and administering space for various reasons, including science, telecommunications, resource extraction, manufacturing, and tourism. This trend also covers the production, transportation, and storage of related materials and products on Earth, in space, and between the two.
According to The Space Report 2023 Q2 by the Space Foundation, the global space economy grew to US$ 546 billion in 2022, and is expected to near the $800 billion mark within five years.
Global launch activity has reached new highs, with 223 launch attempts and 212 successful launches in 2023 – a record number of launches for the third year in a row, with 23% more satellites (2,800) deployed into orbit than in 2022 and commercial launch activity increasing 50% over the previous year.
There are several technological breakthroughs in the space economy industry that will accelerate its growth. These include reusable launch vehicles like SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and Blue Origin’s New Shepard, the miniaturization of satellites which reduce costs of development and launches.
Another technological breakthrough is in-space manufacturing with companies like Made in Space and Redwire Space pioneering 3D printing and other manufacturing technologies in space. There is also the growth of on-orbit servicing – provision of robotic technologies for refueling, repairing and upgrading satellites in space. Lastly, other companies are advancing edge computing in space with technologies like Exo-Space’s FeatherEdge platform to enable on-board processing of data from satellites.
The trend of Space Economy has a low impact and distant adoption for logistics. Currently it is an industry niche, representing a small percentage of the total throughput of today’s supply chains.