Browse Resources by Year

2007 – Launch Industry

Commercial launch industry revenue exhibited modest growth in 2007, increasing #% over 2006. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reports that the commercial launch vehicle industry generated $## billion in revenue in 2007, from ## launches, carrying ## payloads. Exhibit 1f shows commercial launch market share. Russia continues to launch the largest share of commercial payloads, slightly more than the U.S. and Europe combined.

2007 – Commercial Infrastructure and Support Industries Overview

Revenue in 2007 for space infrastructure, including launch vehicles, satellites, ground stations, in-space platforms, and infrastructure support industries totaled $## billion, an increase of ##% over 2006. Ground stations and equipment saw the greatest growth at approximately ##%. Space infrastructure revenue estimates are shown in Exhibit 1e. Government budgets include funding for infrastructure, but government expenditures are addressed separately in U.S. Government Space Budgets.

2007 – Economy Overview

The space industry experienced strong growth overall in 2007, with estimated global space revenues and government budgets reaching $251 billion. Exhibit 1b shows estimated space industry revenues from 2005 through 2007 and yearly growth rates.

2007 – European Military Space Budget

Military space spending among European countries in 2006 totaled $## billion (€## million), according to the European Space Policy Institute, a research institute founded and supported by European aerospace industry partners. For 2004, Euroconsult estimates non-U.S. space spending at $## billion. Countries included in this estimate are the United Kingdom, France, Russia, Germany, Belgium, Spain, Italy, and Israel. Data on international military space spending is generally held closely and difficult to find in public sources. Until better data becomes available, we will continue to use this 2004 figure as an estimate in our aggregated number.

2007 – Chinese Government Space Budget

China’s space budget estimates generate much speculation. Obstacles to clarity include secrecy, the complexity of the Chinese budget system, purchasing power parity, and the overlap in civil and military spending. Estimates range from $## billion to $# billion. For the purposes of this report, we are continuing to use a conservative estimate of $## billion for Chinese space spending published by the World Security Institute, a non-profit global-affairs research and journalism organization.

2007 – Japanese Government Space Budget

Japan has the largest single country international budget, estimated at $## billion. It funds many of its programs through the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). Exhibit 1v shows JAXA’s budget by program area. Japan also funds two major space programs outside of JAXA, the Quazi-Zenith Satellite System and the Information Gathering Satellite. Additionally, a number of ministries have space budgets of their own.

2007 – European Space Agency Budget

The largest international civilian space budget is that of ESA. The agency’s 2007 budget was approximately $## billion. This budget is funded by mandatory as well as voluntary contributions by ESA member states, cooperating states and third parties.

2007 – U.S. National Security Space Budgets

The most recent available estimate of annual DoD space spending continues to be the $## billion estimate released by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) in 2006. Intelligence agencies and MDA are organizationally tied to the DoD; however, their budgets are not included in the DoD space spending estimate. The CRS estimate uses the virtual major force program (vMFP), a budgetary mechanism for grouping space expenditures, as the source for U.S. DoD space budget expenditures.

2007 – U.S. Civil Space Budgets

NASA was allocated $## billion for FY 2007. This is slightly less than the 2006 operating budget of $## billion. For FY 2008, NASA received $## billion. An agency summary from NASA’s proposed FY 2008 budget is shown in Exhibit 1r. This exhibit highlights the breakdown of NASA funding, and shows increases of ##% to ##% per year through 2012.

2007 – United States Government Space Budget Overview

The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and NASA, the two largest space agencies in the world, dominate the U.S. space budget, receiving ##% of U.S. space funding. Combined U.S. defense-related space activities total $## billion, or ##% of the U.S. government space spending. This figure includes DoD space, the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), and Missile Defense Agency (MDA). Military agencies and NASA combine to total ##% of U.S. government space spending.