72
nd
International Astronautical Congress (IAC 2021), Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 25-29 October 2021.
Copyright 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 of
Commercial 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 in
the emerging in-space economy, space resources and microgravity manufacturing fields. The directory was
started 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 the
companies. Literature review will be performed and glossary will be created to define the relatively new
terms in a single source. Until the new industry categories are defined and accepted, activities will be named
by 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 active
in the new in-space economy fields. While most of the commercial lander, space resources, habitat and
space utilities (energy, oxygen, water, communications) enterprises are focusing on LEO and Moon, many
of 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, geographical
distribution 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 econ-
omy entities since 2018. There are 400 entries as of
September 2021, likely the largest public database.
The initial target was microgravity applications and
services, but scope was expanded when a large quan-
tity of overlapping in-space economy or space-based
economy companies started to be announced.
In-space economy means generating revenue in
space using assets in orbit or beyond Earth. In-
space economy is the new extraterrestrial space in-
dustries.
1
Sometimes called as space-based econ-
omy and in narrower definitions on-orbit economy,
space-for-space economy, low Earth orbit economy,
beyond-Earth space economy and it also encom-
passes cislunar economy, Moon and Mars. M.
Weinzierl and M. Sarang called it as space-for-space
economy and defined it as goods and services pro-
duced in space for use in space, such as mining the
Moon or asteroids for material with which to con-
struct in-space habitats or supply refuelling depots.
2
For clarity, excluding satellite constellations for ter-
restrial purposes and Earth-to-space launch vehicles.
New in-space economy entails space stations,
commercial landers, in-space manufacturing and
much more. Fields that often started emerging com-
mercially in the 2000s and generally have had small
revenues. New space economy and specifically in-
space economy terms grew out to distinct the new
areas and to be able to follow them without existing
large space industries inflating the numbers.
Literature review was performed and studies
about the broader new in-space economy seem to
be relatively sparse. Butow et al. summarized state
of 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 Econ-
omy Through Lunar Resources and Their utiliza-
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