In the last four years, a 61 percent jump in economic activity has been tied to the space sector, according to a recent report by the Puget Sound Regional Council. Last year, Washington’s space economy generated $4.6 billion compared with $1.8 billion in 2018. The 6,221 Space-related jobs surged to 13,103.
Launch vehicles, Blue Origin and the advancement of satellite manufacturing and satellite-related services, SpaceX’s Starlink, Amazon’s Project Kuiper and LeoStella all have something to do with the success of Washington State’s Space Economy.
Close to 40% of the 4,852 operational satellites in orbit on Jan. 1 were produced in Washington state. Without major NASA or military space facilities, Washington “from a space standpoint is uniquely entrepreneurial,” said Sean McClinton, RBC Signals business operations manager and founder of Space Entrepreneurs, a group with nearly 1,000-members based in Seattle. “That’s where I see the real potential.”
The Puget Sound Regional Council suggests the region focus on entrepreneurship, workforce development and venture capital to keep the state’s space economy growing. There are more job openings than local space sector employees available to fill them. As a result, space companies recruit from software and aviation firms as well as local schools. This is a good problem to have.
Space economy has been defined as “all public and private actors involved in developing and providing space-enabled products and services. The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) is developing statistics measuring the contributions of space-related industries to the overall U.S. economy. These estimates give business leaders, policymakers, and the public a new tool to analyze the space economy and to inform investment decisions.
Preliminary estimates of the U.S. space economy’s GDP, gross output, private employment, and private compensation by industry were first published in the December 2020 Survey of Current Business. The statistics were updated in January 2022 to include an additional year as well as chained (inflation-adjusted) estimates. BEA will continue to explore options for further work and extensions to these space economy statistics.
