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72nd International Astronautical Congress (IAC 2021), Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 25-29 October 2021.
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2021 by Erik Kulu. Published by the IAF, with permission and released to the IAF to publish in all forms.

IAC-21-D3.3.10

In-Space Economy in 2021 - Statistical Overview and Classification ofCommercial Entities
Erik Kulu
Factories in Space, Nanosats Database, NewSpace Index, Kepler Communications
erik.kulu@factoriesinspace.com
Abstract
New in-space economy fields are emerging. The nascent space industries include human spaceflight,
satellite servicing, orbital transfer vehicles, commercial space stations, in-space manufacturing, commercial
landers and many others. In-space economy includes cislunar economy and Moon and Mars economies.
Factories in Space (www.factoriesinspace.com) is the largest online database of commercial entities inthe emerging in-space economy, space resources and microgravity manufacturing fields. The directory wasstarted in 2018 and is growing quickly with 400 entries at this time.
First part of the paper will define what new in-space economy is and establish classification for thecompanies. Literature review will be performed and glossary will be created to define the relatively newterms in a single source. Until the new industry categories are defined and accepted, activities will be namedby varying methods, which makes it challenging to determine competitors and estimate market sizes. The
count of high-level categories has been limited to the order of 10 for practical purposes.
Second part of the paper will present statistical overview of which companies are or aim to be activein the new in-space economy fields. While most of the commercial lander, space resources, habitat andspace utilities (energy, oxygen, water, communications) enterprises are focusing on LEO and Moon, manyof them will likely add Mars and deep space to their activities once launch opportunities and markets arise.
Within the classifications, comparison will be made between capabilities, development status, geographicaldistribution and funding where available. Goal is to leave a snapshot from 2021 to be able to start discovering
trends and next space market booms over the coming decade.
Keywords: in-space economy, space-based economy, beyond-Earth space economy, on-orbit economy,
cislunar economy, in-space manufacturing
1. INTRODUCTION
Factories in Space has tracked new in-space economy entities since 2018. There are 400 entries as of
September 2021, likely the largest public database.
The initial target was microgravity applications andservices, but scope was expanded when a large quantity of overlapping in-space economy or space-based
economy companies started to be announced.
In-space economy means generating revenue inspace using assets in orbit or beyond Earth. Inspace economy is the new extraterrestrial space industries.1 Sometimes called as space-based economy and in narrower definitions on-orbit economy,
space-for-space economy, low Earth orbit economy,
beyond-Earth space economy and it also encompasses cislunar economy, Moon and Mars. M.
Weinzierl and M. Sarang called it as space-for-spaceeconomy and defined it as goods and services produced in space for use in space, such as mining theIAC-21-D3.3.10

Moon or asteroids for material with which to construct in-space habitats or supply refuelling depots.2
For clarity, excluding satellite constellations for terrestrial purposes and Earth-to-space launch vehicles.
New in-space economy entails space stations,commercial landers, in-space manufacturing andmuch more. Fields that often started emerging commercially in the 2000s and generally have had small
revenues. New space economy and specifically inspace economy terms grew out to distinct the newareas and to be able to follow them without existinglarge space industries inflating the numbers.
Literature review was performed and studies
about the broader new in-space economy seem tobe relatively sparse. Butow et al. summarized stateof the space industrial base in 2020, which included
many of the fields.3 Daniel Faber, CEO of Orbit
Fab, has used the term.4 The Lunar ISRU 2019
workshop was titled ”Developing a New Space Economy Through Lunar Resources and Their utilizaPage 1 of 23

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72nd International Astronautical Congress (IAC 2021), Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 25-29 October 2021.
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tion”.5 Harrison et al. reported on the ”Implications of Ultra-Low-Cost Access to Space” in 2017.6
IDA’s Corbit et al. studied global trends in on-orbit
servicing, assembly and manufacturing (OSAM).7
Space Foundation’s The Space Report found that
global space economy reached $447 billion in 2020,
with 80% being commercial revenues.8, 9 Euroconsult estimates that the consolidated space economy
totalled $385 billion in 2020, out of which $315 billion were commercial revenues.10 Satellite Industry Association’s report prepared by Bryce Tech estimated global space economy revenues in 2020 at$371 billion.11 P. Lionnet estimates worldwide spaceeconomy consolidated value at about $292 billion in
his August 2021 discussion paper.12 The latter being
perhaps closer to reality. Most of those $300-400B
estimates include government budgets, satellite TV
and consumer equipment like GPS receivers. IDA
report in 2020 discussed 5 forecasts for future of thespace economy and found them optimistic.13
Fields that are undoubtedly space, also known as
upstream or space infrastructure or space manufacturing sector,12 have significantly smaller revenues.
Satellite manufacturing had $12.2B and launch vehicles had $5.3B of revenues in 2020 according to Bryce
Tech.11 Euroconsult estimates that in 2020, only
$9B of $385B was in commercial upstream, dividing
between $4B for hardware manufacturing, $1.7B for
launch services and $3B for ground segment.10 Inspace economy is even smaller than these estimatesand has largely started to emerge only recently.
We need new economic drivers for spaceflight.
Something new and potentially larger than any existing space industry, such as telecommunications,remote sensing, launch and research. The following
are supporting macro trends for in-space economy: Decreasing launch costs. Now about 2-3 times
less according to P. Lionnet,14 but potentially
10-100 times lower in the future, e.g. Starship.
 Commercialization of space and LEO.
 Commercial services and infrastructure.
 ISRU and space resources advancements.
 Pollution and climate change on Earth.
 Increasing momentum for space settlements.
 NewSpace iterative mindsets and affinity forbolder risks, also from long-term investors.

First part of this paper establishes taxonomy orclassification for the commercial entities in spacebased economy to be able to group them. Second
part presents statistical overview of the 400 surveyed
in-space economy entities.
IAC-21-D3.3.10

2. RISE OF NEW IN-SPACE ECONOMY
Here follows a short and non-exhaustive chronological overview of some of the latest advances andcompanies in the primary in-space economy fields.
2.1 Commercial Space Stations
Space Industries Incorporated was founded in
the early 1980s and planned to develop a commercial space facility called the Industrial Space Facility(ISF) to be launched in the early 1990s. Reagan administration agreed to become an anchor customer
with up to $700 million in funding, but the request
was not approved by the US Congress.15, 16
Bigelow Aerospace was founded in 1999 to develop expandable orbital station modules. The firstfree-flying technology demonstrator Genesis I was
launched in 2006 and Genesis II in 2007.17 BEAM
module was launched to the ISS in 2016 under a$17.8 million NASA contract18 and is still attached.
Bigelow has developed numerous designs for largecommercial space stations, space hotels and lunar
bases including the BA330 and BA 2100.17 In early
2020, SpaceNews reported that Bigelow decided not
to pursue NASA competition for a commercial ISS
module because of funding concerns.19 In March
2020, Bigelow laid off all employees and it is unknown whether activities will resume.20
Private and cost-effective human spaceflight has
always been a challenge for space stations and a
relatively large expense in general. Once SpaceX
demonstrated crewed flight in May 2020 (Demo-2)
and NASA started seeking commercial International
Space Station (ISS) modules in June 2019,21 Bigelow
seems to have been unable to take advantage of the
finally positive trends and emerging ecosystem, after
20 years and well over $250 million invested.22
In 2007, Galactic Suite Project was announced,
which planned luxury orbital getaways by 2012.23
In 2010, Russian company Orbital Technologies announced Commercial Space Station to belaunched in 2015 in partnership with RSC Energia.24
Axiom Space was founded in 2016 and has raisedover $150 million to date.25 In early 2020, NASAawarded Axiom the NextSTEP contract for the firstcommercial ISS module.26 The construction of thefirst two modules was contracted to Thales Alenia
and planned to be launched in 2024 and 2025.27 The
modules will be separated into a free-flying commercial orbital platform before the ISS is deorbited.
Orion Span was founded in 2017, but fell short oftheir $2M crowdfunding campaign in early 2019.28
In February 2021, Orbital Assembly Corporation
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announced plans to start building the Voyager Station with artificial gravity in 2025.29
In March 2021, Sierra Nevada Corporation(SNC, now Sierra Space) announced LEO space station plans with inflatable pods, which would be supplied by their Dream Chaser spaceplanes.30
During 2021, NASA has been seeking solutions
for free-flying commercial space stations and did receive about a dozen proposals.31, 32
Nanoracks CEO Jeff Manber has said his company has already lost business to China’s Tiangong
Space Station.33 Lunar Gateway will likely havecommercial services for CubeSat and microsatellite
deployment and internal and external platforms forcommercial payloads.
In October 2021, Nanoracks, Voyager Space andLockheed Martin announced Starlab, a commercial
space station which could launch as early as 2027.34
A few days later, Blue Origin and Sierra Spacewith Redwire Space, Boeing and Genesis announced
Orbital Reef, a space station that would be ready inlatter half of the 2020.35 Sierra Space seems to bepausing its independent plans from March 2021.

2.2 Asteroid Mining (Space Resources)
The first wave of commercial asteroid mining has
already come and gone.36
Planetary Resources (Arkyd) was founded in2009 by high-profile backers with the intention tomine asteroids for profit. CubeSats were launched in2014, 2015 and 2018, and over $50M of capital was
raised.37 There were plans to create mid-wave infrared Earth Observation constellation for near-term
revenue generation,38 but the company was sold in2018 after failing to raise further funding.39, 40
Deep Space Industries (DSI) was founded in 2013
with the goal of prospecting and extracting space resources and raised over $3.5 million.36 In the end,
they were unable to launch a demonstration mission,business model was pivoted to deep-space smallsats
and water-based thrusters, and the company wassold to Bradford Space in late 2018.41
There are others, including Asteroid Mining Corporation42 in the UK and Origin Space from China,
latter of which launched a test spacecraft in 2021.43
At the end of 2020, NASA selected four companies to collect space resources and transfer ownershipto the agency: Lunar Outpost, Masten Space Systems, ispace Europe and ispace Japan, paying from
$1 to $15000 for small amounts of lunar regolith.44
IAC-21-D3.3.10

2.3 Surface Habitats
The Lunar Resources Company (now The Moon
Society) designed a commercial Lunar Settlement
plan in the 1990s called The Artemis Project.45
Started in 1993, the first description and architecture was published in 1995 in Analog Magazine.46
Mars One organization was announced in 2012and planned to send a crewed mission to Mars on
a one-way ticket to establish a human settlement in
2023.47 After many controversies48 and much scepticism, the project eventually failed to attract enoughfunding and went bankrupt in 2019.49
The overall trends and technological capabilities
were not there, thus making the plans too early at
the time. As of 2021, SpaceX’s Starship and NASA’s
Artemis program are starting to provide a much
more favourable environment.
2.4 Commercial Landers
In 1998, SpaceDev claimed to be the world’s
first commercial space exploration and development
company and intended to launch the first privately
financed spacecraft to land on another planetarybody. It was selling rides for scientific instruments
to a near Earth asteroid with the intention to sellthat data as commercial products.50
The $20M Google Lunar XPrize was announced
in 2007. The goal was to land a private robotic
spacecraft on the Moon, travel at least 500 meters
and transmit high-definition video. The initial deadline of 2012 was extended multiple times until 2018,
when the challenge ended with no winner.51, 52
Beresheet was a lander from Israel’s non-profit
SpaceIL and their entry to XPrize, which as of 2021
is the only one which has been launched, and which
made an unsuccessful landing attempt in 2019.53
While most of the other XPrize finalists are still active with missions booked, none have launched after
more than 3 years from the initial deadlines.
In 2018, NASA launched the Commercial Lunar Payload Services Program (CLPS) to use commercial lander services for science and technology
payloads.54 In May 2019, Astrobotic was awarded$79.5M, Intuitive Machines $77M and OrbitBeyond$97M.55 Launches were supposed to happen in 20202021, but are now 2022 at the earliest. OrbitBeyond
later asked to be released from the contract.56 In
2020, NASA awarded $75.9M to Masten for for a
mission in 2022.57 Also in 2020, NASA awarded Astrobotic $199.5M to deliver the VIPER rover to theMoon.58 In 2021, NASA awarded CLPS contract
worth of $93.3M to Firefly Aerospace to deliver asuite of 10 payloads to the Moon in 2023.59
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2.5 Commercial Rovers
The first wave of in-space economy companies
happened in the late 1990s and early 2000s during
the first wave of communications constellations andInternet companies.
BlastOff! Corporation operated from 1999 to
2001, peaked at 50 employees and planned to senda robotic lander and rover to the Moon in 2001.60
TransOrbital got permission for the first private
Moon landing in 2002 and planned to send an imaging satellite and a time capsule as early as 2003.61
Google Lunar XPrize kicked off the developmentof plethora of rovers, because one requirement wasto travel 500 meters and capture HD-video.51
Astrobotic was awarded $5.6M in 2019 by NASAto develop MoonRanger rover, which could fly in
2022 on Masten XL-1 lander.62 In 2018, Astrobotic
announced that it established CubeRover subsidiary
in Luxembourg,63 but does not seem to have happened and website now redirects to Astrobotic.
2.6 Commercial Cargo
In 2004, NASA awarded Kistler, which by thattime was in bankruptcy, a $227 million contract
for a fully reusable launch vehicle K-1’s flight data.
SpaceX protested and argued that other companies
should have been given the opportunity to compete.
NASA cancelled the award after it became clear that
the Government Accountability Office (GAO) would
rule in favor of SpaceX.64, 65
NASA Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) consisted of two phases. Phase 1
was demonstrations and Phase 2 was a competition
for cargo services to support the ISS. NASA payments were made only upon completion of progress
milestones.66, 67 SpaceX and Rocketplane-Kistler
were selected in August 2006.68 The agreementwith Kistler was terminated in September 2007 after it failed to complete financial and technical milestones.69 A competition was held to select a newpartner, which resulted in the selection of Orbital
Sciences Corporation (OSC) in February 2008.66
In 2008, NASA announced the Commercial Resupply Services (CRS-1) awards. SpaceX received$1.6 billion for 12 cargo Dragon flights and $1.9
billion went to Orbital Sciences for eight Cygnus
flights.70 SpaceX performed the first demo mission
to ISS in 2012 and Orbital in 2014. In December
2015, NASA extended CRS-1 to twenty flights forSpaceX and ten flights to Orbital ATK.71
Second CRS-2 contracts were awarded in January 2016 to Orbital ATK, SpaceX (Dragon-2) andSNC (Dream Chaser) for flights starting in 2019 andIAC-21-D3.3.10

lasting through 2024. Cygnus and Cargo Dragon
have been flying since 2019-2020. The first SNC
Dream Chaser Demo-1 launch is planned for 2022
on a Vulcan rocket, which has not flown yet.72
SpaceX was awarded one-way cargo transportation services called Gateway Logistics Services inMarch 2020 for the Lunar Gateway, using a new
Dragon XL launched on Falcon Heavy.73 As of April
2021, the formal contract start has been delayed.74
Chinese startup Interspace Explore is developing reusable spacecraft capable of supplying China’s
Tiangong space station with a first small-scaledemonstration mission planned for 2022.75
2.7 Commercial Human Spaceflight
At least two firms entered into negotiations tobuy and operate a fifth Space Shuttle in 1980s.76, 77
In 2009, Excalibur Almaz announced they will
be using Soviet Almaz reusable space capsules tolaunch tourists to orbit and Moon. Flights were firstplanned to start in 2013 and later pushed to 2015.
The company went defunct around 2016.78–80
Space Adventures has sent 7 space tourists, or
space flight participants, on 8 flights to the ISS between 2001-2009 using Sojuz.81 In 2011, Space Adventures announced that one ticket for a circumlunar Sojuz mission in 2015 had been sold at a priceof $150 million.,82, 83 but that mission has not cometo fruition. Commercial visits to the ISS will continue in December 2021 using Sojuz, with a two-week
mission including Yusaku Maezawa.84 Space Adventures have also announced a free-flying SpaceX Crew
Dragon capsule mission.81
In 2013, two-time space tourist Dennis Tito announced Inspiration Mars foundation and a private Mars flyby mission in 2018.85 Trouble started
when a mission study showed that commercial vehicles would not be suitable and NASA’s SLS (Space
Launch System) would be required plus extensive
support.86 In 2014, liftoff was rescheduled to 2021,87
but the organization became dormant in 2015.
Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) Phase
1 awards were announced in early 2010 with fundingfor concept and technology development.88 The final
phase of CCDev program concluded in September
2014.89 SpaceX was awarded $2.6 billion and Boeing was awarded $4.2 billion.90 SpaceX performed
the first uncrewed flight in 2019, crewed demo flightin 2020 and has performed 2 operational missions.91
Boeing’s Starliner performed a partially successful
first mission in December 2019,92 while the second
uncrewed test has been delayed to 2022,93 and theearliest crew mission to late 2022 or 2023.94
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In 2016, SpaceX announced plans for a circumlunar mission paid by Yusaku Maezawa with the Crew
Dragon flying on Falcon Heavy.95 In 2018, the plans
were switched to Starship with the lunar flyby mission ”dearMoon” currently scheduled for 2023.96
In September 2021, Inspiration4 mission performed a 3-day flight on SpaceX Crew Dragon, which
did not have any professional astronauts on-board.97
There have been all-civilian and private missions before, but they always had at least one professional
astronaut part of the crew, making this the first all
private sector and citizen mission.
NASA announced Artemis program in 2019 tosend the first woman and the next man to the Moonby 2024 and to develop a sustainable human presence on the Moon by 2028.98 NASA announced competition for the Human Landing System (HLS) in
2019, which would perform the human lunar landingin 2024. In the first study phase announced in April
2020, Blue Origin was awarded $579M, Dynetics$253M and SpaceX $135M.99 In April 2021, SpaceX
won the $2.89 billion contract with Starship for the
first return lunar landing mission.100 Further regular flights, after the first, will have a new competitionand possibly 2 service providers to be selected. In
September 2021, NASA awarded NextSTEP awards
for a total of $146M for further sustainable humanlander technology development.101
2.8 Re-Entry Capsules
Small re-entry capsules for on-demand returnfrom space (stations) is a decades old idea with many
missions flown.102 The idea had more support during the retirement of the Space Shuttle when the ISS
was supplied with expendable Progress, ATV andHTV and only a limited downmass capability existedwith Sojuz capsules. With the recent emergence ofregular commercial crew and returnable cargo flights
every 2-3 months, the practical necessity and business case to save approximately a month of time for aconsiderably more cost has not been proven. Similar
unproven case is with dedicated (reusable) satellites
for microgravity manufacturing and research.103
VBK-Raduga was a reentry capsule that flew 9
or 10 flights between 1990-1994, returning materials from Mir.104 In 2000, European Space Agency(ESA) with international partners tested inflatablere-entry technology with the ISS payload download
seen as one promising application due to the Space
Shuttle costs.105 Around 2005, ESA and EADS
(Airbus) studied PARES (Payload Retrieval System) that would have been launched from the expendable Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) andIAC-21-D3.3.10

could bring back 220 kg with a design that was 70
cm in diameter and 2.28 m in length.106
Small re-entry capsules were commonly used formilitary Earth observation satellites to return thefilm. Soviet lunar sample return missions had asmall re-entry capsule and performed the first 3 successful robotic missions in 1970-1976. BREM-SAT
2 was studied around 1996 and planned be capableof re-entry using a deployable heat shield.107 The
next extraterrestrial samples were returned on Genesis, Stardust, Hayabusa, Hayabusa2 and Chang’e
5 missions while OSIRIS-REx is ongoing and manyplanned including Martian sample-return.
Foton and Foton-M are a Russian series of spacecraft with re-entry capsules. First mission was in1985 and the last mission was performed in 2014.108
In 2014, NASA awarded Terminal Velocity(SpaceWorks) SBIR Phase 1 and Phase 2 contracts
for low-cost small payload return with a capsuleseries called RED (Reentry Device, RED-25, RED4U).109–111 The data recorder version RED-Data2
flew in 2017 on Cygnus OA-7.112
In 2015, Shackelton Energy signed an agreementwith CASIS to develop Oryx series of aerobraking reentry capsules for on-demand rapid return of time
critical experiments from the ISS.113 The projectand company is likely now dormant.
Around 2018, Intuitive Machines advertised their
URV (Universal Reentry Vehicle) capable of returning cargo from LEO and Moon, but it has since been
removed from the official website.114
HTV Small Re-entry Capsule (HSRC) performeda successful demonstration returning cargo from theISS in November 2018, but has not flown again. The
capsule has a mass of 180 kg and is 85 cm in diameter and 66 cm in height with internal volume of 30
litres and 20 kg payload capacity.115
New commercial solutions in development include Varda Space and Space Forge.
2.9 In-Space Manufacturing
Microgravity Research Associates was founded in1979 for the purpose of engaging in materials processing in space. It planned to grow crystals in space,starting with gallium arsenide. The high-quality gallium arsenide crystals could be used to make chipsthat would be much faster than silicon chips.116
Many space manufacturing experiments were
performed on Skylab in 1973. First Space Manufacturing Conference was in 1977. The early 1980s was
the first age of in-space manufacturing with manystudies published for profitable materials as part ofthe beginning of regular Space Shuttle flights andPage 5 of 23

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for future usage of the planned Freedom Space Station.117–124 None of those forecasts came true.
Optical fibre ZBLAN was started to be publicly touted as the first profitable product madein space in about 2016-2017.125–127 One of thefirst studies about ZBLAN manufacturing in microgravity was released in 1995.128 News alreadyin 1998 estimated ZBLAN commercial potential at$2.5 billion.129 NASA’s has awarded optical fiber related contracts to FOMS, Physical Optics Corporation, Apsidal and DSTAR starting from 2016.130–133
Made in Space launched internally funded ZBLAN
demonstration missions in 2017 and 2019.134, 135
FOMS reported high-quality production on ISS in
2019.136 Flawless Photonics is developing ZBLAN
production system in Luxembourg.137 After all thenews, progress seems slower than expected in the
recent years and Made In Space is focusing elsewhere,138 but it could also be because of secrecy.
Made in Space, founded in 2010, has been testinglarge-scale in-space assembly and construction technologies and additive manufacturing. They launchedfirst 3D printer to ISS in 2014.139 In 2019, NASAawarded $73.7M for Archinaut One to manufacture
10-meter beams and unfurl solar arrays.140
There are many commercial services on the
ISS to perform experiments, demonstrate payloads
and potentially in-space manufacturing processes.
For example, Nanoracks Nanolab, Space Applications Services ICE Cubes, Airbus Bartolomeo, Space
Tango CubeLab. In addition to many upcoming.
Varda Space was founded in 2020 and is developing reusable satellites with re-entry capability forin-space manufacturing and other services.141 SpaceForge, founded in 2020, is working on re-usable
ForgeStar satellites with return-to-Earth capability
for microgravity on demand.142
2.10 In-Space Transportation (Space Tugs)
There was a time when the Space Shuttle wasplanned to be the only launch vehicle of the UnitedStates and thus an upper stage would have been required for many types of spacecraft to get to their
final orbits. Already by 1972, NASA and DOD had
studied a variety of upper stage approaches including expendable stages and recoverable space tugs,
which included in-orbit servicing.143
By 1984, several companies had developed upper stage vehicles designed to place payloads in highorbit. McDonnell Douglas and General Dynamics
manufactured the Payload Assist Module and theCentaur. Boeing and Orbital Systems Corp weredeveloping similar upper stage vehicles.76
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Studies and proposals continued.144, 145 In 1986,
TRW was awarded contract for one orbital manoeuvring vehicle, because NASA viewed space tugs as
essential components of the proposed Freedom Space
Station to retrieve and return satellites.146 McManus et al studied over a hundred possible orbitaltransfer vehicle designs in 2003.147
Space tugs are now one of the most popular new
in-space economy fields thanks to the popularityof nano- and microsatellites and low-cost rideshare
missions. Spaceflight (Andrews Space) announced
SHERPA in 2012 and first mission was planned for2014, but happened in 2018.148, 149 Momentus wasfounded in 2017 to provide last-mile transportation
service for satellites. They raised over $140 million and then went public through SPAC, but are
currently solving legal and regulatory troubles.150
In September 2021, SpaceX founding member Tom
Mueller announced Impulse company with the goal
to provide agile economical access to any orbit.151
2.11 Satellite Servicing
The first satellite servicing was performed in1984 to Solar Maximum Mission spacecraft during
the Space Shuttle mission STS-41-C.152
Mission Extension Vehicle (MEV) concept got
started around 2010 in ViviSat.153, 154 After mergers, the project continued in Orbital ATK and thenin SpaceLogistics, which is a subsidiary of Northrop
Grumman.155 First commercial servicing mission
MEV-1 launched in 2019 and attached to Intelsat901 in geostationary orbit in 2020.156 MEV-2
launched in 2020 and attached to Intelsat 10-02 in
2021.157 As of 2021, Space Logistics is preparing tolaunch a new servicing vehicle with a robotic armthat will install propulsion jet packs on dying satellites. Six undisclosed customers have signed up to
get their satellites serviced by the Mission Robotic
Vehicle (MRV), projected to launch in 2024.158
MDA announced servicing spacecraft concept inearly 2010.159 In 2017, a subsidiary called Space Infrastructure Services was created and majority wassold to Finance Technology Leverage.160
Astroscale, known for debris removal, but generally a satellite servicing company, was founded in2013 and has raised over $191 million.161, 162
Orbit Fab, founded in 2018 and offering refuelling services in space, is planning to launch a propellant tanker payload on Spaceflight Sherpa-ES orbital transfer vehicle to geostationary orbit, with thelaunch projected for late 2022 or early 2023.163
As of 2021, work is ongoing to establish satellite
servicing standards and regulations.164–166

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3. MARKET SURVEY
3.1 Survey Criteria
The survey criteria, which has resulted in the 400
entries currently and increasing, is the following: Belongs to the in-space economy, as definedin the next section of classifications and subcategories.
 More precisely ”new in-space economy”. For
example, excluding launch vehicles, unless they
are also meant for interplanetary flight like Starship; excluding satellite manufacturing, unlessthey will be reusable; excluding satellite fleetsand constellations around Earth; and more.
 Commercial entities or at minimum offeringcommercial services to the public markets.

3.2 In-Space Economy Classification
One goal of this paper is to establish taxonomy orclassification for the commercial entities in in-spaceeconomy to be able to group them. Until such categories are defined and widely accepted, the activities will be called with different names as per personal preferences, which makes it more challenging
to determine competitors and estimate market sizes.
The categories have been limited to 10 to make thegraphs more practical to read, but this will likely
change in the future.
The following classification is preliminary andauthor expects it to improve greatly thanks to feedback, independent iterations and especially over theupcoming years as the new space-based industries
emerge and become established.
Figure 1 illustrates the in-space economy fields.

The in-space economy categories are:
1. Human Spaceflight & Landers
2. Cargo Transportation & Landers
3. Surface Spacecraft
4. Space Stations & Habitats
5. Surface Habitats & Structures
6. In-Space Manufacturing
7. Space Resources
8. Space Utilities
9. In-Space Transportation
10. Miscellaneous

Figure 1: In-Space Economy
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4. IN-SPACE ECONOMY GLOSSARY
Here follows the terminology and definitions forthe primary classifications. The following list of keywords, alternative terms, applications and fields is
not exhaustive. Feedback is very welcome and author expects the terminology to evolve greatly as
in-space economy markets develop.
1. Human Spaceflight & Landers - Space vehicles designed for any kind of human flight.
Also referred to as crewed spaceflight.167 It isa separate category due to difficulty level, but
could be merged in the future.
 Human-Rated Spacecraft, Spaceships &Shuttles - Minimum criteria is an orbital
flight in LEO.167 Includes space transport
ships to Moon, Mars and beyond.
 Human-Rated Landers - Moon and Marslanders and reusable shuttles.

2. Cargo Transportation & Landers - Spacecraft transporting goods from and to Earth,
Moon and Mars.
 Cargo Resupply - Space station cargo resupply services.
 Landers - Commercial non-reusable Moon,
Mars and asteroid robotic landers.
 Reusable Satellites - Spacecraft with launchand re-entry capability that could be used
for activities near Earth and Mars.
 Reentry Capsules (Earth, Mars) - Dedicated re-entry capsules of which many
have been in development and one flown
by Russia. This and previous might reemerge to service in-space manufacturing.

3. Surface Spacecraft - Spacecraft working on
the surface or near the surface of a planetarybody. Includes rovers, drones and hoppers.
 Rovers - Wheeled or rolling robotic vehicles on the Moon. To be used for exploration, prospecting and transportation.
 Drones - Rocket-powered flight on the lunar surface to reach difficult locations or
winged and rotary aircraft on Mars, Venus
and Titan for example.
 Hoppers - Hopping might become a transportation method on Moon and asteroids.
 Human-Rated Rovers - Sub-set of rovers
designed for human-use, often larger scaleand stricter safety requirements.

IAC-21-D3.3.10

4. Space Stations & Space Habitats - Freeflying space stations and even larger space habitats. Can be called space platform, orbitalcolony, space colony and space settlement. May
be located in orbit around the Earth, Moon,
Mars, Venus and in Lagrange points. Could
be a rotating space station to achieve artificial gravity.168 Merriam-Webster defines spacestation as a large artificial satellite designed tobe occupied for long periods and to serve as abase.169 K. Kennedy et al defined space habitats as a recreation of the Earth environment
for the purpose of sustaining human life, andthat habitats are pressurized crew volumes including laboratories, living quarters, and maintenance facilities.170
5. Surface Habitats & Surface Structures- alternatively surface facilities. Facilities on
the surface of Moon and Mars for habitation,
storage and manufacturing. Structures can include physical infrastructure, antennas, various plants, factories and more.
6. In-Space Manufacturing (ISM) - alternatively Off-Earth Manufacturing171 and SpaceBased Manufacturing.172 ISM divides into 2
large areas. First area is manufacturing products in microgravity for Earth, which will be
brought back to be sold on terrestrial markets.
Second area is manufacturing large-scale spacestructures that will remain in space.
 Microgravity & ISS Flight Service - Service providers to access microgravity environment, which can be facilities on the
ISS and upcoming space stations, or dedicated free-flyer spacecraft.
 In-Space Manufacturing - In narrower definition it means making products and materials in microgravity, which cannot bemade on Earth, or which are better.
 In-Space Production - Same as the narrow definition of in-space manufacturing.
ISS National Lab has started to actively
use this term.173
 Space Food or Deep Space Food - Space
agriculture will be a large industry to supply fresh food to workers, settlers andtourists, both in-space and on Moon, Marsand beyond.
 Microgravity Manufacturing - Alternative
name for in-space manufacturing and inspace production.

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 In-Space Construction - Large-scale construction in space and on Moon and Mars.
 In-Space Assembly (ISA) - Subset of inspace construction, which will likely be
the first step before the very large-scale
end-to-end construction in space. Xue etal. defines ISA as the assembly activities completed in the target orbit and extraterrestrial space, which is to assemble
modules in space in order to form a largerfunctional element, or to recombine one
or more structures after separation.174
 Additive Manufacturing - Subset of inspace construction, also 3D printing.
 Parabolic and Suborbital Flights - Somemicrogravity manufacturing can happen
during short flights and due to that has
been included here for completeness.

7. Space Resources - Deals with the prospecting, mining, beneficiation, processing, ISRU
and recycling of natural or artificial resourcesin space, incl. Moon, Mars and asteroids.1, 175
 ISRU (In-Situ Resource Utilization) - Any
hardware or operation that harnesses andutilizes ‘in-situ’ resources to create products and services for robotic and human
exploration.1 Encompasses exploration,mine planning, mineral processing, metallurgy and sale of off-Earth resources.1
 Prospecting - Determining the composition of asteroids, moons and planets withmining and ISRU in mind using remotesensing and in-situ measurements.
 Space Mining - Also Off-World Mining176
and includes Moon and Mars mining. Extracting and collecting the raw resourcesfrom planetoids or planetary surfaces.177
 Asteroid Mining - Sub-set of space mining focused on asteroids in space together
with basic processing to reduce the massof materials to be transported.
 Lunar Resources - Subset of space resources.
 Raw Materials - Selling processed materials like ice, water, oxygen and metals.
 Recycling - Reprocessing artificial objects
including satellites and spent rocket stages
into raw materials or reusing parts of themfor new missions.
 Processing or Beneficiation - Separating
valuable minerals from waste rock.

IAC-21-D3.3.10

8. Space Utilities - alternatively In-Space Utilities. There will exist distinctive supply chainsand physical infrastructure for common goods
like energy, internet, navigation and water.
 Energy - Includes space-based solar power,
nuclear power and wireless transmission.
Electrical energy will likely have a more
centralized infrastructure on Moon andMars. Currently often served by independent solar panels, but solar power stations could supply other satellites and vehicles and outposts on the ground. Caltech recently announced they got a $100
million donation in 2013 to form the Spacebased Solar Power Project.178
 In-Space Internet - Communications will
be a critical infrastructure throughout thesolar system and on the surfaces of Moon
and Mars.
 Navigation - Navigation in space and on
Moon and Mars. Possibly required for
future landers and surface vehicles.
 Water - Water in space and on Moon andMars, to be used for human consumption,
air and propellant.

9. In-Space Transportation - Could be called
Space Trucks as a utility vehicle comparison.
There are many similarities between the following sub-categories, because all of the spacecraft must be capable of significant orbital velocity changes. It is very likely that same entities will offer multiple services thanks to theunderlying technologies. Similar to terrestrial
applications, where trucks and pick-ups canserve multiple roles depending on the choiceof payload, all requiring only small modifications. Key difference with Cargo Transportation is that these vehicles will stay in space anddo not have reentry and/or landing capability.
 On-Orbit Servicing (OOS) - Spacecraftwith the means to go nearby other spacecraft and dock with them for propellant
loading, orbital repositioning or to stayattached and augment capabilities. J. P.
Davis et al. defines OOS as on-orbit activities conducted by a space vehicle that
performs up-close inspection of, or results
in intentional and beneficial changes to,another resident space object. These activities include non-contact support, orbit modification (relocation) and maintenance, refuelling and commodities replen-

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ishment, upgrade, repair, assembly, anddebris mitigation.179
 Satellite Maintenance - Alternative term
for in-space servicing.180
 In-Orbit Inspection - Sub-set of on-orbit
servicing. Spacecraft capable of travellingnearby to other spacecraft and inspecting
them for damages and status.
 Orbital Transfer Vehicle (OTV) - Spacecraft capable of transporting other spacecraft between different orbits. Capabilities can vary greatly. Starting from small
altitude and inclination changes in LEO,
to taking spacecraft from LEO to GEO,
and to Moon, Mars and further.
 Space Tugs - Alternative name for Orbital
Transfer Vehicles.
 Space Transportation Node - Alternative
name for Orbital Transfer Vehicles.
 Orbital Manoeuvring Vehicle - Alternative term for OTVs and Space Tugs.181
 Propellant Reload Station - Includes propellant refuel stations, propellant depots,
orbital refuelling, and propellant tankers.163
As Elon Musk noted, propellant reloading is correcter term compared to refuelling, because propellant is a combination of fuel and oxidizer.182
 Active Debris Removal (ADR) - Spacecraft with the means to go nearby otherspacecraft and help them de-orbit faster.
 Reusable Satellites - Sharing many technologies with OTVs and spacecraft in general. Uniqueness will be on modular exchangeable payloads changed in space.
 Space Mobility, Space Logistics - Anotherterms for In-Space Transportation thatmight become widely used. AIAA defines
space logistics as the science of planningand carrying out the movement of humans and materiel to, from and withinspace combined with the ability to maintain human and robotics operations withinspace.183
10. Miscellaneous - Supporting and connected
services to the in-space economy, which largely
would not exist without it. Some of them may
not strictly generate revenue in space.
 Space Suits & Garments - Space suits andspace clothing will be required for every
astronaut, settler and tourist.

IAC-21-D3.3.10

 Commercial Astronauts - Privately employed and trained astronauts to help withlarge-scale commercial activities in spaceand on the surfaces.184, 185
 Space Tourism, Suborbital Space Tourism- Wider terms encompassing human spaceflight and habitation services. Suborbital
Space Tourism companies have been included under miscellaneous. Space tourism
is considered to be one of the potential
customer segments for multiple in-spaceeconomy fields in the future.
 Space Tourism Support Activities - Space
tourists, but also commercial astronauts,
will require some training and support for
the foreseeable future. This can also include space-themed experiences on Earth.
 Space Entertainment - In-space economy
will likely start a new form of entertainment, where the activities will happen inspace. Starting with variations of or new
types of sports, space casinos, performanceshows, and other entertainment activities.
 Space Advertising and Marketing - Advertisements in space, Moon and Mars.
 Space Traffic Management - Very active
and common human spaceflight activities
between Earth, Moon, Mars and spacestations will likely need some coordination. This also includes Space Situational
Awareness (SSA), which US Air Force now
calls Space Domain Awareness (SDA).186
 In-Orbit Computing - Both edge computing and server farms in space.
 Space Robotics - Can be covered by inspace construction, in-space manufacturing, surface spacecraft and satellite servicing, but also robotic humanoid robots.
 Moon and Mars Remote Sensing - Imaging in different wavelengths for choosing
landing and base sites, cartography andresource mapping.
 In-Space Infrastructure - Wider term thatwould encompass many of the top-level
categories like transportation, utilities andstations. No companies in the data havethis classification currently and has been
only listed for completeness. S. P Sharma
and C. Moore define in-Space infrastructure as consisting of the systems and services operating in Earth’s neighbourhood
to facilitate commerce, exploration, andscientific discovery.187

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5. 2021 STATISTICAL OVERVIEW

5.2 Status with Classification

Here follows the statistical overview of the 400
entries included in this new in-space economy surveyof commercial space entities.

Figure 3 plots the same classification as Figure 2
and adds status indicators. In the human spaceflight
category, SpaceX is active.
In general, a 1/3 of entities are in dormant, concept or early stages. Another 1/3 are in active development. Approximately 10% of companies havelaunched some technologies to orbit and thanks tothat they can be given demonstrated status.
In-space manufacturing is active, because of large
amount of the ISS and other microgravity service
providers which are actively offering services. Thereare currently no known companies manufacturing
the same product regularly in space.
Northrop Grumman, D-Orbit and Spaceflight are
active in the in-space transportation category because they have launched their space tugs for servicing or satellite deployment.
Miscellaneous includes multiple non-hardware orspace advocacy organizations that are active.

5.1 Classifications
Figure 2 shows the classification of new in-spaceeconomy companies. Generally, there has been only
one primary category per company, but it will haveto be expanded soon.
Human spaceflight and space stations are expensive and technologically challenging to develop, andas such it is difficult to enter this market, which has
resulted in a small number of entities.
In-space transportation with 57 entries is the mostpopular due to a rapid increase in orbital transfer
vehicle (space tug) startups. This category also includes satellite servicing, active debris removal andpropellant reloading, because of the large overlap inspacecraft technologies.
In-space manufacturing with 80 entries includes
the ISS-based and other microgravity testing service providers, and thanks to that is the most popular category. There are only a few actual and regular in-space manufacturing entities making products and materials for Earth or space. This category also includes numerous companies which have
performed demonstrations, done research or madelimited quantity of novelty products such as space
whisky and space beer.

5.3 Founded
Figure 4 lists the founding dates of all entities inthe database. Founding of a company does not correlate to a successful long-term business and before
that to performing demonstration missions, because
many will become dormant before being ready.
Between 2008-2010, SpaceX succeeded in launching rockets to orbit. CubeSats started to be taken
seriously around the same time. The amount of new

Classification of In−Space Economy Entities
Human Spaceflight & Landers

7

Space Stations & Habitats

14

Surface Habitats & Structures

16

Surface Spacecraft

18

Cargo Transportation & Landers

31

Space Utilities

41

Space Resources

44

In−Space Transportation

57

In−Space Manufacturing

82

Miscellaneous

90

0

25

50

75

Figure 2: New In-Space Economy Applications
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Classification with Status of In−Space Economy Entities
Human Spaceflight & Landers

Status1) Active2) Demonstrated3) Development
4) Early stage5) Concept
6) Dormant

Space Stations & Habitats
Surface Habitats & Structures
Surface Spacecraft
Cargo Transportation & Landers
Space Utilities
Space Resources
In−Space Transportation
In−Space Manufacturing
Miscellaneous
0

25

50

75

Figure 3: New In-Space Economy Statusspace companies being created has increased rapidly
in the recent years when compared to 10 years ago.
This figure shows well the arrival of NewSpace.
The peak in 2018 and subsequent decline could be
explained by as a mix of the following points. First,
there was a boom of some sorts, which has slowed
down in terms of very new startups, because there
are similar graphs for nanosatellite, constellation andlauncher companies.188, 189 Funding boom is continuing though. Second, because many of those new
in-space fields do not have existing markets, somepotential new actors might be in waiting mode, because they want to see what happens financially andtechnically to existing companies. Third, startups
could be in stealth mode or very early stage and assuch I have not become aware of them yet. They
will likely partially backfill.
The new wave of companies founded between
2017-2019 is likely correlated to SpaceX’s Starshipand NASA’s Artemis program announcements, because of the very high payload capacity and low-costrideshare missions improve the business cases, while
returning to the Moon is creating new markets formany in-space economy fields.
Bryce Tech report about start-up space companies also shows a decline in new companies, but they
only track the ones with announced investments.190
While there was a decline, author forecasts thatsuccessful Starship missions to orbit and return to
the Moon will kick off another startup founding wave
in about 2-3 years.
IAC-21-D3.3.10

5.4 Founded with Status
Figure 5 lists the founding dates of all entities inthe database together with the status categories. As
seen from the chart, many commercial organizations
are in the early stages of development and often the
progress could be limited only to a website and asmall partially committed team.
The highest year of 2018 also has the largest
amount of dormant companies. 2018 also sees thehighest amount of concept and early stage companies, with only about 30% in active development asof now.
Only a small percentage of companies have performed orbital demonstrations or are active, whichshows there is still a long path for the market to
emerge and for many in-space economy services tobecome commonplace.
5.5 Founded with Classification
Figure 6 plots the founding dates of all entities
in the database together with the classification.
Blue Origin was founded in 2000 and SpaceX
was founded in 2002. Google Lunar XPrize was announced in 2007,51 which inspired many lunar lander
and lunar rover companies that were founded in thefollowing years.
Starting from 2017 and still continuing, there
has been a large increase of in-space transportationcompanies, which include space tugs, debris removal
and satellite servicing. Possibly coinciding with thePage 12 of 23

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Founding Years of In−Space Economy Entities
60

60

46
42

40

37

24

20

17 17
13
7
2

3

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3

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0

Figure 4: New In-Space Economy Status
first public Starship announcements and successful
re-usability of Falcon 9, because both are aiming tolower costs of space access, potentially enabling thebusiness cases using rideshare missions.
Companies developing ISRU and surface habitats solutions have been increasing also. Likely again
thanks to NASA’s Artemis announcement in 2019
and SpaceX’s long-term vision for Mars settlement.
5.6 Funding
Figure 7 collected funding amounts in the defined
ranges. ”Yes, but unknown” commonly means anestablished space company, but it is unknown how
much are they investing in those specific new fields,
but very likely a considerable amount. ”Unknown”
category is for companies who have not announced
funding and based on their activities, social media
and a number of public employees, it leaves an impression that they probably have very little funding.
”Not applicable” category is for various space advocacy organizations, which are not aiming to do muchtechnology development or own space missions, andmany of them can be non-profits who do not announce fundraising round like startups.
Over $1 billion in private and awarded funding
have received for example SpaceX, Blue Origin and
Boeing. Over $100 million in funding have been able
to raise Astrobotic, Astroscale, Bigelow Space Operations, Firefly Aerospace, ispace, Masten Space Systems, Spaceflight. Between $50-100 million in pri-IAC-21-D3.3.10

vate funding have for example Axiom Space, Made
In Space (Redwire), Moon Express, SpaceIL, Varda
Space Industries.
5.7 Funding with Classification
Figure 8 adds categories to the funding amounts.
SpaceX is represented multiple times due to various
future services in development.
Some lander, rover and in-space transportationand space stations companies have accumulated large
funding over $100 million.
Many companies in the in-space manufacturing
and ISRU fields have recently received awards from
NASA, in relation to the Artemis program.
Most surface habitat companies have gotten very
little funding, but in many ways the state of theecosystem is also early for them.
5.8 First Launches
First missions and demonstrations in space havebeen gathered on Figure 9.
Knowingly cancelled and dormant companies havebeen marked separately. ”Not applicable” includes
space advocacy organizations, which are not aiming to do own space missions. ”Not announced” arecompanies that do not seem to have announced ayear for their first missions or activities in space.
This also correlates to the large number of idea andearly stage companies, where there are too many unknowns.
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5.9 Geographical Distribution
Distribution of the in-space economy companies
by headquarters locations is on Figure 10.
Almost all are based in the United States. Less
than 20 in Canada, UK, Germany and Australia,
but otherwise only one or two in other countries. It
is possible that some are missing from China.

Founding Years with Status of In−Space Economy Entities
60

Status1) Active2) Demonstrated3) Development
4) Early stage5) Concept
6) Dormant

40

20

19
93
19
94
19
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0

Figure 5: New In-Space Economy Status
Founding Years with Classification of In−Space Economy Entities
60

Categories
50

40

30

Cargo Transportation & Landers
Human Spaceflight & Landers
In−Space Manufacturing
In−Space Transportation
MiscellaneousSpace Resources
Space Stations & Habitats
Space Utilities
Surface Habitats & Structures
Surface Spacecraft

20

10

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Figure 6: New In-Space Economy Status
IAC-21-D3.3.10

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Funding of In−Space Economy Entities
29m) Yes, but unknown
5k) $1000m+

7j) $100m+
5i) $50−100m

10h) $10−50m
8g) $5−10m

17f) $1−5m
15e) $0.1−1m18d) <$0.1m
10c) <$0.01m

51b) Unknown
9a) Not applicable
0

20

40

60

Figure 7: New In-Space Economy Status

Funding with Classification of In−Space Economy Entitiesm) Yes, but unknown

Categoriesk) $1000m+

Cargo Transportation & Landers
Human Spaceflight & Landers
In−Space Manufacturing
In−Space Transportation
MiscellaneousSpace Resources
Space Stations & Habitats
Space Utilities
Surface Habitats & Structures
Surface Spacecraftj) $100m+i) $50−100mh) $10−50mg) $5−10mf) $1−5me) $0.1−1md) <$0.1mc) <$0.01mb) Unknowna) Not applicable
0

10

20

30

40

50

Figure 8: New In-Space Economy Status

IAC-21-D3.3.10

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First Launches of In−Space Economy Entities
170

150

100

50
28
18
1

1

1

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22 023 024 025 026 027 050 ant ced able
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rm un lic
Do nno app
t a Not
No

Figure 9: New In-Space Economy Status

Geographical Distribution of In−Space Economy Entities
230
200
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90
60
40
20
10
5
1
0

Figure 10: New In-Space Economy Map

IAC-21-D3.3.10

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6. CONCLUSIONS
Statistical overview of 400 in-space economy entities has been presented. Short historical overview
about the primary in-space economy fields was described. All the fields were classified into a 10-category
in-space economy taxonomy. Furthermore, glossary
was presented, which included sub-categories, definitions and example entities and projects.
New in-space economy fields are emerging rapidly.
Commercial human spaceflight has been demonstrated
with Inspiration4 and NASA’s crew missions to theISS, all using SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsules. Axiom Space is actively building commercial space station modules. Commercial Moon lander and rover
missions are planned to start in 2022. In-space manufacturing has already many microgravity service
providers, but now the first steps have been taken
towards in-space production and in-space construction. Satellite servicing has also been demonstrated.
Space tugs or orbital transfer vehicles is possibly thefield that is most blooming by the amount of active
and starting organizations.
The goal is to start repeating this study annually
as a whole or as deep dives into the classifications.
The online figures and database are expected to be
updated multiple times per year at minimum.
References[1] Erik Kulu. Commercial Landscape of Space
Resources in 2021. Poster, April 2021.
[2] Matt Weinzierl and Mehak Sarang. The Commercial Space Age Is Here. Harvard Business
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[3] Steven J. Butow, Thomas Cooley, Eric Felt,
and Joel B. Mozer. State of the Space Industrial Base 2020. Technical report, July 2020.
[4] Daniel Faber.
Sustainable settlements inspace: What could extraterrestrial life look
like for humans? August 2021.
[5] Lunar ISRU 2019: Developing a New Space
Economy Through Lunar Resources and Their
Utilization. Technical report, July 2019.
[6] Todd Harrison, Andrew Hunter, Kaitlyn Johnson, and Thomas Roberts. Implications of
Ultra-Low-Cost Access to Space. Technical report, March 2017.
[7] Benjamin A. Corbin, Amana Abdurrezak,
Luke P. Newell, Gordon M. Roesler, andIAC-21-D3.3.10

Bhavya Lal. Global Trends in On Orbit Servicing, Assembly and Manufacturing (OSAM).
Technical report, The Institute for Defense
Analyses’, March 2020.
[8] The Space Foundation. Commercial Space
Revenue Grew 6.6% in 2020, according to The
Space Report Special Edition. Technical report, August 2021.
[9] Debra Werner. Global space economy swells
in spite of the pandemic. August 2021.
[10] Euroconsult. Space economy valued at $385
billion in 2020, with commercial space revenues totaling over $310 billion. Technical report, January 2021.
[11] Bryce Tech. State of the Satellite Industry
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[12] Pierre Lionnet. Space Economy Fundamentals. Technical report, August 2021.
[13] Keith W. Crane, Evan Linck, Bhavya Lal, andRachel Y. Wei. Measuring the Space Economy:
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[14] Pierre Lionnet. Twitter Discussion on Luanch
Costs, August 2021.
[15] David Kaplan. Space station idea was far-out
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[16] Clifford Kurtzman. Experiment schedulingfor the Industrial Space Facility.
In 7thComputers in Aerospace Conference, Monterey,CA,U.S.A., October 1989. American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
[17] Bigelow Aerospace.
[18] Paul Marks. NASA buys blow-up habitat forspace station astronauts. January 2013.
[19] Jeff Foust. Bigelow Aerospace sets sights on
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[20] Jeff Foust. Bigelow Aerospace lays off entire
workforce. March 2020.
[21] Jeff Foust. NASA seeks proposals for commercial ISS modules. June 2019.
[22] Adam Higginbotham. Robert Bigelow Plans aReal Estate Empire in Space. May 2013.

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[23] Emily Clark. Holiday in orbit: Galactic Suitespace resort opening 2012. August 2007.

[39] Jeff Foust. Planetary Resources revising plans
after funding setback. May 2018.

[24] Tariq Malik. Russian companies plan commercial space station. September 2010.

[40] Jeff Foust. Asteroid mining company Planetary Resources acquired by blockchain firm.
October 2018.

[25] Darrell Etherington. Axiom Space raises $130
million for its commercial space station ambitions. February 2021.
[26] Stephanie Schierholz and Matthew Rydin.
NASA Selects First Commercial Destination
Module for International Space Station, January 2020.
[27] Thales Alenia space to Provide The First Two
Pressurized Modules for Axiom Space Station,
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