2019 Space Employment Hit 8-Year High, Launch Activity Reached Decade Growth of 39%, Research from The Space Report 2020 Q1 Analysis Shows

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (March 31, 2020) — Across multiple fronts, the space industry heading into 2020 was the strongest in years, with gains in space industry jobs, new nations entering space, and record-level research and investor activity through International Space Station U.S. National Laboratory programs.

Those are among the new findings in The Space Report 2020, Quarter One, released today.

Other 2019 Performance Indicators

• Global launch attempts increased 39% in the last decade, and with 103 launch attempts in 2019, averaged almost two a week.
• The number of new nations in space now represents more than half the countries in the world; 82 nations have spacecraft in orbit, but with fractional ownership and other expanded criteria, the total climbs to 102.
• Research and investment activities hit record levels on the International Space Station U.S. National Laboratory. Astronaut utilization hours for on-board research climbed to an all-time high of 967 hours in 2019, more than a 27% increase in hours from 2018. Investor interest is also growing stronger. The ISS National Laboratory grew its investor members to 157 last year, a 33% increase from 2018. National Laboratory estimates that investors in the network are managing more than $420 billion in assets.

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