Investment and deal activity in space technology accelerated sharply in the first half of the year, driven by SpaceX’s IPO, large-scale consolidation and expanding interest in satellite broadband, Earth observation and orbital computing, according to analysts at S&P Global (NYSE:SPGI) Market Intelligence.
During a webinar on the emerging space economy, Sarah James, who leads the Tech, Media & Telecoms News team at S&P Global Market Intelligence, said $146 billion of common stock was offered through U.S. IPOs during the first six months of the year. SpaceX accounted for $86 billion of that total. The broader space technology market recorded $338 billion in investment across 193 transactions in the period, including mergers and acquisitions and fundraising, compared with just under $22 billion across 133 transactions in the first half of 2025.
Separately, Rocket Lab agreed in June to acquire Iridium for $8 billion, combining Rocket Lab’s launch business with Iridium’s mobile satellite network.
LEO satellites reshape broadband market
John Fletcher, senior analyst of media at S&P Global Market Intelligence’s Kagan unit, said low-Earth-orbit, or LEO, satellites have changed the economics and performance of satellite broadband. Unlike geostationary satellites positioned more than 10,000 miles above Earth, LEO satellites operate much closer to the planet, improving speeds and reducing latency.
Satellite broadband in the U.S. did not exceed 2 million subscribers before about 2020, Fletcher said. More recently, the sector’s market share rose from 2% to more than 3%, based on Starlink’s growth. Starlink has expanded substantially faster than legacy satellite broadband providers, he said, while lowering prices to compete for market share.
Fletcher said Starlink’s U.S. service was priced as low as $30 per month before the SpaceX IPO, though some offerings at that price remain available. He added that SpaceX’s connectivity division, which includes Starlink, generated EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA margins in the 60% range in 2025.
Satellite broadband remains a secondary access technology rather than the leading broadband connection method in any country, Fletcher said. Qatar had the highest penetration rate at roughly 6%. Adoption is concentrated in geographically large countries with dispersed populations, including the U.S., Australia, Russia and Canada, where extending fiber, cable or DSL networks to remote areas can be uneconomic.
- Starlink accounts for roughly two-thirds of satellites currently in orbit, Fletcher said.
- LEO systems have a far larger number of satellites than traditional geostationary systems.
- LEO satellites can have shorter operating lives; Starlink satellites discussed in the webinar were generally amortized over five years.
Fletcher noted that the short expected life of some LEO satellites creates both economic and environmental questions, particularly as satellites are deorbited and burn up in the atmosphere. Other planned LEO constellations may use larger satellites with longer projected lifespans. During the webinar’s question-and-answer session, James said Telesat’s LEO satellites are expected to last roughly 15 to 20 years, compared with the shorter lifecycle associated with some lower-orbit systems envisioned by Starlink and Amazon LEO.
IoT and defense broaden commercial use cases
Johan Vermij, senior analyst at 451 Research, part of S&P Global Market Intelligence, said the “new space economy” has developed as launch costs declined, reusable rockets emerged and smaller satellites opened commercial opportunities.
Vermij identified IoT satellite connectivity, the Russia-Ukraine war and the recent push toward orbital data centers as major drivers of expansion. In S&P Global’s Voice of the Enterprise: The OT Perspective survey, 67% of oil and gas respondents said they use satellite connectivity. Monitoring remote assets was the most common application among those users, followed by environmental uses, while 30% cited asset tracking.
He said many startups launched small CubeSat-based constellations to support low-bandwidth applications using technologies such as LoRaWAN and NB-IoT. However, some companies have struggled to establish viable business cases and have shifted from building proprietary constellations toward using other operators’ networks or focusing on data collection.
The Ukraine war also broadened commercial satellite use, Vermij said. Both sides have used commercial Earth-observation services, while private citizens have used imagery from providers including Maxar, Planet and ICEYE for open-source intelligence and to assess battlefield claims and damage.
Orbital data centers face practical constraints
Analysts also discussed growing proposals for orbital data centers, which proponents see as a potential response to terrestrial energy, cooling and AI-related capacity constraints. Vermij said FCC filings have included plans for 1 million orbital data centers from SpaceX and 51,000 from Blue Origin, while cautioning that spectrum applications do not necessarily translate into deployed infrastructure.
He said a more immediate use case may be space-edge computing, in which Earth-observation data is processed in orbit before results are transmitted back to Earth, reducing downlink requirements. Sending AI inference workloads from Earth into space is a less established proposition, he said.
Ellie Brown, research analyst at S&P Global Market Intelligence, said orbital infrastructure must be evaluated across its full lifecycle, from material sourcing and launch emissions to in-orbit congestion and end-of-life disposal. While launch-related fossil-fuel use is currently about 1% of conventional aviation fuel consumption, she said the proportion could change as launch activity scales.
Brown also highlighted the risks from growing orbital debris. European Space Agency estimates cited during the webinar showed more than 7,000 launches since 1957, more than 26,000 satellites placed in orbit and more than 16,000 metric tons of objects in orbit. The agency estimates about 54,000 objects larger than 10 centimeters are in space, along with millions of smaller debris fragments.
Managing debris, radiation exposure, launch-site impacts, international standards and space traffic will be essential as commercial infrastructure expands, the analysts said. Brown added that sovereignty concerns involving data, applications and computing capacity on Earth are also likely to extend to space-based infrastructure.
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