Why the space industry may triple to $1.4 trillion by 2030

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Bank of America expects the growing space economy will more than triple in size in the next decade, with the firm this week forecasting space will grow to become a $1.4 trillion market.

“While the COVID-19 pandemic has led to delays in some public and private programs … the outbreak has not appeared detrimental to overall investment. This may largely be due to the fact that most spending in space is business-to-business/government (B2B/G), which generally recovers faster than business-to-consumer (B2C) spending,” Bank of America analyst Ron Epstein wrote in a research note to investors.

The space economy has continued to grow, in large part to a record period of private investment and new investors opportunities in companies involved in spaceflight, satellites, and more. While Bank of America tracks just 14 publicly-traded stocks with exposure to space, Epstein said there are “more to come.”

Using a compound annual growth rate of 10.6%, the average from the last two years, Bank of America forecast would see the industry’s revenue grow 230% – from about $424 billion in 2019 to about $1.4 trillion in 2030. That would put space near the current size of the global tourism economy, which Bank of America noted is a $1.5 trillion industry.