OECD: Space Economy Nears $600 Billion as Risks Mount

Global Space Economy Approaches $600 Billion

The global space economy approached $600 billion USD in 2025, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s newly released Space Economy at a Glance 2026 report. The findings underscore how space activities now underpin critical infrastructure worldwide — but the rapid expansion brings new risks that governments must actively manage, including for Canada.

OECD civil space budgets reached $46.4 billion USD in 2025, an increase from $40.5 billion USD in 2022. Private investment is also playing a significant role, with capital flows to the sector estimated between $11 billion USD and $13 billion USD in 2025.

A second major finding points to the changing nature of orbital activity. Private operators, meaning mostly SpaceX, accounted for 88 per cent of satellites launched in 2025, a steep increase from 23 per cent in 2010. Telecommunications networks drive this surge, such as Starlink (SpaceX), OneWeb (Eutelsat) and Amazon LEO (Amazon), with low-Earth orbit constellations reshaping demand. However, this rapid growth introduces serious sustainability challenges. The report shows that nearly $200 USD billion of economic activity is exposed to space debris risks.

Galileo Achieves First Authenticated Position Fix

For two hours on the afternoon of Wednesday, September 16, five operational Galileo satellites broadcasting over Europe transmitted a new encrypted signal for testing. On the ground in Andøya, Norway, and at ESA’s navigation laboratory at ESTEC in the Netherlands, receivers successfully established their location using these encrypted signals, marking the first real-world positioning using Galileo’s upcoming Signal Authentication Service (SAS).

Galileo Signal Authentication Service first position fix | Source: ESA

Satellite navigation has become essential in daily life, and consequently it has also become an increasingly attractive target for disruption. Interference with Global Navigation Satellite Systems such as jamming and spoofing is reported daily in many regions, including in Europe, particularly in or near conflict zones.

One of Galileo’s most significant innovations is the Signal Authentication Service, that together with the already available Open Service Navigation Message Authentication (OSNMA) will unlock a new level of protection against interference. “By combining signal authentication and navigation message authentication, users will know they can trust the position their device is showing,” explained ESA’s Galileo Head of Engineering Joerg Hahn.

NASA Orbiter Spots Largest New Crater in Solar System

It started as a routine data-quality check. But as Robert Wagner, a scientist with NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), scanned a giant Moon map on his computer screen, an unusually large bright spot circled by a dark halo caught his eye, as it implied that surface material in that area had been shaken up.

Two nearly identical black-and-white images appear side by side, separated by a vertical black line. Each shows a dark, uneven surface with scattered small circular depressions and several larger… | Source: NASA Science

“I just stopped, dropped everything, and started looking into what that spot was,” said Wagner, an image-processing specialist from Intuitive Machines who works with data from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) system.

By comparing before and after images of the Moon, Wagner realized he had discovered the largest, newly formed crater ever found in the solar system, as scientists reported in Science Advances. The crater formed when a rock, possibly the size of a three- to six-story building, crashed into the Moon between April 11 and May 22, 2024 — a once-in-a-century event.

Citations

“OECD report outlines growing space economy and strategic risks, including for Canada” — https://spaceq.ca/global-space-economy-approaches-600-billion-oecd-finds/
“Galileo’s first civil authenticated position fix under spoofing conditions” — https://www.esa.int/Applications/Satellite_navigation/Galileo/Galileo_s_first_civil_authenticated_position_fix_under_spoofing_conditions
“NASA’s Moon Orbiter Spots New, ‘Once-in-Century’ Moon Crater” — https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system/moon/nasas-moon-orbiter-spots-new-once-in-century-moon-crater/

Owl By The Dozen (StriX Launch 12)

Provider: Rocket Lab
Date: September 19, 2026
Time: 3:15 AM UTC
Vehicle: Electron

Synthetic aperture radar satellite for Japanese Earth imaging company Synspective.

Unknown Payload

Provider: China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation
Date: September 19, 2026
Time: 10:50 AM UTC
Vehicle: Long March 2D

Details TBD.

Starlink Group 15-27

Provider: SpaceX
Date: September 20, 2026
Time: 1:47 AM UTC
Vehicle: Falcon 9

A batch of 27 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation – SpaceX’s project for space-based Internet communication system.

Unknown Payload

Provider: CAS Space
Date: September 20, 2026
Time: 4:00 AM UTC
Vehicle: Kinetica 1

Details TBD.

Starlink Group 31-1 (Starship Flight 14)

Provider: SpaceX
Date: September 22, 2026
Time: 12:15 PM UTC
Vehicle: Starship

14th test flight of the two-stage Starship launch vehicle. 3rd flight of Starship V3 and the first Starship flight to deploy satellites (a group of Starlink satellites known as Starlink Group 31-1) into stable Low Earth Orbit.

The ship is expected to fly at an altitude approximately 275 km above Earth and complete approximately 6 orbits around the planet for nearly 10 hours, with splashdown targeted in the Pacific Ocean west of Chile.

The booster’s primary test objective on Flight 14 will be executing a successful launch, ascent, stage separation, boostback burn, and landing burn at an offshore landing point in the Gulf.

Starship will deliver 26 Starlink V3 satellites to orbit for the first time, which aim to greatly expand the network’s capacity and user speeds. Each Starlink V3 satellite will add 1 Tbps of capacity to the constellation.