Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
I'll swear let's talk about this. The Space Foundation out with its latest quarterly report showing global commercial revenue jumping eight percent from a year ago to six hundred and thirteen billion, the leading driver of the private sector, which accounts for seventy eight percent of the space economy, government budgets making up the smallest portion of just over one hundred and thirty billion. Potential catalyst for growth include President
Trump's Golden Dome, ebon, mus Starlink, and commercial spaceflight. Joining us now to discuss is head Pringle, the CEO of the Space Foundation Head to welcome to the program. Lots to work through here, but the numbers that jump out to me are the seventy eight percent coming from private enterprise. Do you see the private sector doing much of the heavy lifting of the space economy for the years forward and the foreseeable future.
Absolutely, the commercial sector is right now valued at four hundred and eighty billion dollars for twenty twenty four, and that is an eight percent growth over the prior year. And when we look at the twelve sectors that constitute the commercial market, we look at position, navigation and timing, which comprises two hundred thirty one billion dollars. The number two service just behind that is ground infrastructure and equipment, coming in at one hundred and twenty three billion dollars.
Both of these sub sectors showed a ten percent growth over the prior year. So with something like position navigation and timing, this is coming into every swipe, tap and left turn that you make using those global navigation satellite services.
Heather, I'm struck by the fact that, yes, the private sector is the one that it's leading the charge into space exploration and space use and the space economy, and yet there's a huge national security component to this, with the likes of China and Russia trying to exploit this whole network, possibly disrupting the United States. It's based on your research with the Air Force, your service with the military.
I'm just wondering how prepared the United States is for that in terms of government coordination with the private sector.
Well.
Absolutely, the United States is the number one investor in the global space economy, and this includes all sectors commercial, civil, government, as well as national security.
Now you were pointing out what the United States is doing on the.
National security side forty nine billion dollars of investment into our national security enterprise. Over ninety percent of that is going to the newest service, that is the United States Space Force. This is well ahead of what we see China is investing. For example, on the civil government side, the United States is investing twenty seven billion dollars in the civil government space economy. China is investing seventy percent,
So we're well ahead on that. You can also look at the launch record, for example, the first six months of twenty twenty five, the United States is launching at a record ninety seven already launches.
These first six months.
China is only a fraction of that, well under twenty. So the United States is leading, it's leaning forward, and it's doing a lot to prepare for this. You mentioned Golden Dome as well. This is a huge initiative, valued at one hundred and seventy five billion dollars for the entire development effort. It's going to have a large commercial component. They're looking at short timelines. They want capability, whether it's everything from sensing to tracking to intercepting, and the commercial
space market is really ready to deliver. Well.
The Golden Dome just locked in thirteen billion dollars. They named someone to be a project leader, but this morning is reporting that Trump is looking for alternatives to musk SpaceX to lead that project. What companies in the private sector could lead that project?
In your view, well, this is going Golden Dome is going to be a national security project led by the recently confirmed four star general Mike Gootline. He'll be here with us today at our program. But to your point about who are the commercial entities who can step up to the plate, there are a number of companies that are leaning forward delivering capability. This is a multi layered capability. When you look at the totality of what Golden Dome is,
it's launch, it's sensing, it's tracking, it's intercepting. And so even if you did take a deeper look at the launch enterprise, there are over fourteen companies around the world who can deliver that ten different nations.
So it's a whole of nation.
Effort and there are a lot of companies who are able and willing to step up to the plate.
I guess what you're saying is, if it's not going to be SpaceX, there will be a company that can fill that role. Do you have a timeline of how long this project can take.
Well, I would say there have to be a number of companies, whether it's SpaceX or others, who need to contribute to this project.
The scope of it is so large that it really.
Is going to take a number of companies delivering these different capabilities. As far as the timeline we are looking at, the President has announced that it should be on a three year timeline, So that's looking for capabilities that are out there, that are fairly mature, that are tried and true and existing.
So that's what it'll depend on.
These numbers again and bigger and bigger. Looking forward to tracking this story with you once again. The Space Foundation CEO had the pringo that on the size of the space economy, I.
Love the space of main discussions.
I've got to say, I love the idea of what can happen there, whether we're all entering sort of the Obi wan Kenobi Yoda worlds. I mean, honestly, I mean all of the science fiction coming to reality and how that is a serious threat when it comes to international warfare.
When you talk about a bum market