Space Economy Market by Company

Space at a Glance

Structural signals shaping the commercial space economy.

•Reusable launch has cut the cost of reaching orbit by roughly an order of magnitude over the past decade, led by SpaceX. Rocket Lab's Neutron and Blue Origin's New Glenn are now entering the medium-to-heavy class.
•Direct-to-cell is the newest commercial frontier. AST SpaceMobile and the Starlink and T-Mobile partnership aim to connect ordinary, unmodified smartphones straight to satellites.
•Earth observation has matured into a recurring-revenue data business. Planet Labs and BlackSky sell imagery and analytics subscriptions rather than one-off satellites.
•Commercial lunar access opened in February 2024 when Intuitive Machines' IM-1 Odysseus became the first private spacecraft to soft-land on the Moon, followed by Firefly's Blue Ghost in 2025.

The Players

The companies tracked in this sector, from the oldest to the newest, with where they were founded and the milestone that put each on the map.

Company	Founded	Notable first	HQ	Focus
Blue OriginPrivate	2000	New Glenn reached orbit on its maiden flight in Jan 2025, after years of New Shepard suborbital tourism.	Kent, WA	Launch
Iridium CommunicationsIRDM	2001	Runs the only network covering the entire planet, poles included, on a 66-satellite LEO constellation.	McLean, VA	Satellite comms
SpaceXSPCX	2002	Falcon 1 became the first privately developed liquid-fueled rocket to reach orbit in 2008.	Starbase, TX	Launch
Rocket LabRKLB	2006	Founded in New Zealand. Its Electron rocket reached orbit (the 'Still Testing' flight) in Jan 2018.	Long Beach, CA	Launch
Planet LabsPL	2010	Flew its first 'Dove' imaging satellites in 2013 and now photographs Earth's entire landmass daily.	San Francisco, CA	Earth observation
Intuitive MachinesLUNR	2013	IM-1 Odysseus made the first commercial soft landing on the Moon in Feb 2024.	Houston, TX	Lunar access
BlackSkyBKSY	2013	Pairs a high-revisit imaging constellation with an analytics platform for real-time geospatial intelligence.	Herndon, VA	Earth observation
Firefly AerospaceFLY	2017	Its Blue Ghost lander made the first fully successful, upright commercial Moon landing in Mar 2025.	Cedar Park, TX	Launch and lunar
AST SpaceMobileASTS	2017	BlueWalker 3 proved direct-to-smartphone calls from space in 2022. BlueBird satellites began launching in 2024.	Midland, TX	Direct-to-cell
RedwireRDW	2020	Formed from a roll-up of heritage space-hardware suppliers, building solar arrays, structures, and in-space manufacturing.	Jacksonville, FL	Space infrastructure

Data updated 2026-06-18

Where They're Based

The US space industry clusters into a few metros. Switch between hubs to see the companies headquartered there, including nearby private players this tracker does not cover yet.

The densest space hub on Earth. Long Beach, Hawthorne, El Segundo, and Redondo Beach pack in more rocket and satellite builders than anywhere else in the world.

Map of space companies in the Los Angeles area

SpaceX

Rocket Lab

Relativity Space

Vast

Impulse Space

Varda Space

K2 Space

Apex

Data updated 2026-06-18

Space Economy Market by Company

Space at a Glance

The Players

Where They're Based

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