2018
Orbital Launch Attempts by Half-Year, 2017-mid-2021
JAXA Workforce, 2010-2020
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) employed 1,558 people in 2020, approximately the same number as in 2019. Engineers and researchers account for 70.1% of this total.
European Space Industry Employment, 2010-2020
The European space workforce included 50,388 workers in 2020, an increase of 3.3% from the 48,766 workers in 2019. The largest increases were seen in . . .
Japanese Space Industry Employment, 2009-2019
According to the Society of Japanese Aerospace Companies, the Japanese space workforce included 8,725 workers in 2019. . . More than 70% of these workers are in the space vehicle sector. While this sector decreased 1.9% from 2018 to 2019, it remains nearly 10% larger than it was five years ago.
Share of U.S. Government Space Spending in Military and Civil Government Domains, 2011-2020
Share of U.S. Government space spending in military and civil government domains, 2011-2020
Rate of Change in U.S. Government Space Spending, 2011-2020
Almost 44% of all U.S. space spending was allocated to NASA in 2020 — over $22.6 billion.184 This figure is a 5.3% increase over 2019 and a 22.8% increase over the preceding decade.
Global Military vs. Civil Government Space Spending, 2011-2020
Notably, military space spending in 2020, estimated at US$31.4 billion, constituted the smallest share of global government space spending in a decade – only 35%. This figure marks a reduction from 2019, wherein the $34.6 billion spent globally constituted 38% of government space spending. U.S. military space spending increased by 6.1% in 2020, reaching a new height of $26.6 billion and comprising more than 80% of global military space spending for the first time since 2011.
U.S. Space Industry Core Employment, 2010-2020
The industry has been growing steadily since 2016, with employment increasing 15.4% over the last four years. These preliminary results suggest that the space industry has been relatively resilient to the effects of the global pandemic.
Rate of Change in Non-U.S. Government Space Spending, 2011-2020
Non-U.S. military space was funded at less than half the level it had been in 2019, according to a country-level analysis of six nations spread across four continents: Argentina, Brazil, France, Germany, Japan, and Nigeria. This drop in investment suggests that, for many countries, military space takes a back seat to civil space ambitions and emergency relief for terrestrial disasters such as the coronavirus for many countries.
Average Payloads Deployed per Successful Orbital Launch (2011-2020)
Why might we be seeing this shift towards small vehicles? Average payload deployment per successful launch, a reflection of growing ridesharing among spacecraft operators, reached a height of nearly 11 payloads per launch in 2020. This figure is 2.5 times higher than the previous year and 7 times higher than a decade ago.