Payload’s take on what you need to know about the news of the day.
A moratorium on regulating human commercial spaceflight—aka space tourism—is set to expire in October, and the folks at the FAA are at a crossroads: to renew or not to renew? In a report published this week by RAND, researchers determined that the commercial human spaceflight industry has progressed far enough that it’s time for the […]
This morning, Deloitte released a forecast on the potential for growth within the space industry. The report, which pairs market data with a survey of space industry leaders, is intended to give execs in other industries the background they need to incorporate space into their businesses. Bottom line upfront: “For space to grow, and fulfill […]
Ed. note: This analysis was authored by Mo Islam, Payload’s cofounder and a former Wall Street analyst. This is an educated best guess, not based on access to any SpaceX internal data or proprietary info! We’re attempting the impossible yet again: predicting SpaceX’s revenue. Before we get into Act 2—aka 2023—we’re revising our 2022 projections, […]
Last week, Payload cofounder Mo Islam had the pleasure of sitting down with three top VCs: Anton Brevde from Prime Movers Lab, Michelle Volz from a16z, and Shahin Farschi from Lux Capital. The hour-long conversation covered the state of the economy, the fundraising environment for space companies, and predictions for 2023. We’ve curated some of […]
Space Capital has released its final quarterly report on the 2022 investing landscape. It was a tough year for fundraising, as the froth drained from the free-flowing capital markets of years past. Though the space industry saw receding levels of capital deployment, the report’s authors remain optimistic about the sector’s ability to bounce back. 2022 […]
2022 was the second largest year of ADG deal-making on record, according to a comprehensive analysis published Wednesday by market intelligence firm HigherGov. BTW…ADG = aerospace, defense, and government, and M&A = mergers and acquisitions. With this one simple trick—using ADG and M&A rather than writing the phrases out in full—we’ve given you seconds of […]
Here’s our official graphs of launches by country in 2022, along with a look back at activity for the seven years prior. These visualization stands on the shoulders of a giant, Jonathan McDowell, who did great work in cataloging space activities in 2022. The increase in the US’ number of launches can primarily be attributed […]
In its flagship Space Economy Report published this morning, Paris-based Euroconsult finds that the space market grew 8% in 2022. This report is the gold standard for market intelligence on the end-to-end space economy, from upstream manufacturers to downstream service providers and end users across civil, military, and commercial space. The space value chain… …as […]
‘Twas a busy time in Paris last week. The European Space Agency announced a new cohort of astronauts and announced a budget of €16.9B for the next three years. The sum falls short of the €18.5B requested by the agency, but still represents a 17% increase over the prior period. Lots of 17s last week: […]
Happy Election Day to US readers. Hope you all are already sporting your “I voted” stickers. While we won’t know results for hours (or even days), these are the close races among space committee members that we’ll be watching as results roll in (with predictions c/o FiveThirtyEight and Cook Political Report): On the other side […]
Expect new players in the spacefaring game, says Euroconsult. Analysts from the space market intelligence firm have released their third annual report on the state of space exploration. Gone are the days when only a few major powers monopolized spacefaring—instead, Euroconsult sees a future where many more nations are active participants and investors in space […]
The looming departure of national security space champions from Capitol Hill is expected to leave a vacuum as the Space Force approaches its third birthday, but experts say more junior members are waiting in the wings for their shot to drive military space policy. One of the community’s biggest losses is Rep. Jim Cooper (D-TN), […]
