January 2025 | Give Us Some Space – to Work in the Space Economy
Physicists have long believed that space and the cosmos are expanding – and now the space economy is too. Projected to grow at an impressive 9% per year over the next 10 years, the space industry could achieve a value of $1.8 trillion by 2025. PriSim had posted previously about space-related SPACs, and funding has gone mainstream with space-related companies bringing in $8.6 billion in investments in 2024 alone.
The impact of the growing space economy is not just about astronauts and space travel, but about business opportunities and global economics. McKinsey says “backbone” and “reach” applications of the space economy are expected to grow at twice the rate of GDP, impacting many industries and helping solve global issues such as climate change. Jobs come along with that, too. If you’ve always wanted to take a trip to outer space, maybe a more down-to-earth alternative would be to take a trip to the inner-space of Huntsville, AL, dubbed “Rocket City”, or to Brownsville, TX, the headquarters of SpaceX – just 2 of the booming locations luring engineers and other workers with space-related jobs.
And look out below – the space junk and “orbital debris” collecting above earth is also expanding so fast that NASA published a poem lamenting its growth. But some companies, such as PriSim’s client Lockheed, are skipping the poetry and opting to profit instead from the flotsam and jetsam. The value of orbital debris could be worth up to $1.2 trillion in recovery and recycling. Could this be the start of the “space-junk economy”?