Closing Bell - Manifest Space: How the space economy will hit $1T by 2032 with Space Foundation CEO Heather Pringle 9/25/25

Episode Date: September 25, 2025

The global space economy has hit a record $613 billion, growing nearly 8% year over year. Morgan Brennan speaks with Space Foundation CEO Heather Pringle about what’s fueling the boom—like human spaceflight and national security initiatives such as Golden Dome. They also discuss investor enthusiasm, the role of AI, and why Pringle expects the sector to hit $1 trillion by 2032. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The space economy is booming. It's going like gangbusters. As you know, the Space Foundation has been studying the global space economy for nearly 20 years. And we've reached in 2024 a record high. It's exceeding the $600 billion mark. And the new number is $613 billion. And that includes both the commercial sector as well as the, the government sector coming together and showing an increase over the prior year at 7.8%,

which is really exciting. The Space Foundation is a non-profit organization advocating for the global space industry and its many sectors. Over the summer, the organization released its space activity report, chronicling the industry's ongoing expansion, which CEO Heather Pringle says was driven by strong growth in commercial space. In 2024, the launch cadence was about one launch every 34 hours. And already this year, we're seeing one launch every 28 hours. And this increased access to space allows more companies to join in the space ecosystem.

It allows more innovation as well. And when you look at the commercial sector writ large, so Space Foundation studies 12 different sectors, and we have a couple that rise to the top because of this increased launch cadence and the ability to use space for more and more purposes. The commercial sector accounted for 78% of the global space economy last year, with government budgets contributing the rest. On this episode, the Space Foundation's Heather Pringle, who is a retired Air Force Major General, on the space economy

and where it is all headed from here. I'm Morgan Brennan, and this is Manifest Space. Joining me now, Heather Pringle, CEO of the Space Foundation. Heather, it's so great to speak with you again. Thank you. Thanks for having me, Morgan. Great to be here. So I just want to start with a big, broad question, and that is, how is the space economy faring? It's going like gangbusters. As you know, the Space Foundation has been studying the global space economy for nearly 20 years,

And we've reached in 2024 a record high. It's exceeding the $600 billion mark, and the new number is $613 billion. And that includes both the commercial sector as well as the government sector coming together and showing an increase over the prior year at 7.8%, which is really exciting. We've had a really great year and looking forward to the few. future. What's fueling it? What's fueling the growth? Well, it starts with a really robust and accelerating launch cadence. As you know, in 2024, the launch cadence was about one launch every 34 hours. And already this year, we're seeing one launch every 28 hours. And this

increased access to space, allows more companies to join in the space ecosystem. It allows more innovation as well. And when you look at the commercial sector writ large, so space foundation studies 12 different sectors, and we have a couple that rise to the top because of this increased launch cadence and the ability to use space for more and more purposes. What rises to the top? Well, it starts with position navigation and timing. That's a $231 billion sector of the commercial space economy. And this includes sales of devices, sales of vehicles that need to have that navigation inside them. So $231 billion is really a robust part of it. It also includes ground stations and infrastructure. structure. So those areas that are commanding and controlling it. And both of these sectors together have increases over 10% from the year prior. So like you said, Morgan, things are going really well

in the space economy. I'm curious how much of that is actually commercial, commercially driven projects and private sector and how much of that is government related, especially when we're seeing so much more money from the government. And by the way, not just in the U.S., but globally, go towards things like space. Absolutely. So when you look at the whole global space economy, the commercial sector is about $480 billion. So that's a preponderance of what is driving this increasing number. The government, not just the United States, but around the world as well, that's about $132 billion of the global space economy. So we can look at what international countries are investing in space. They're increasing their investment. When you look at

those countries, they've had a 70% increase in their investment in the space economy. So again, contributing to that growth. But overall, the United States is the global leader in investment across military, national security, and the civil sector. How does Golden Dome factor in? I hear that there's a big opportunity from the space perspective for that. Well, Golden Dome is a huge initiative for our nation. It does come into the national security category. It's valued at $175 billion over its lifespan.

So it's a really great opportunity to look at, at space for its ability to identify, track, maintain custody, and even intercept threats to the United States. So this initiative is getting underway. It's really exciting. It's going to have a large commercial component. And the timelines that they're looking at, really getting capability to space sooner, and that will lean on the commercial mature capabilities, in the near term. So really excited about where that's going for the commercial sector. I know one of the other big topics, and just to stick with national security space for a minute, but one of the other big topics has been this notion of resilient architecture and securing space.

And, you know, I find myself increasingly having conversations about this idea of weapons or missiles in space, protecting assets in space. I guess where is all of this headed? as we think about that balance between space as a warfighting domain and civil space and the opportunity to continue to explore space and colonize space. So national security interests and economic interests, they really go hand in hand, Morgan. So you need that national security underpinning so that we have continued access, safe, reliable. usable space for whatever purposes, be it economic or exploration. And that is what is underpinning this really exciting growth so that we can have more and more civil investment, more and more civil innovation and capabilities in the space domain.

So I see them as going hand in hand. How important is it to have, I realize we've been acting. administrator of NASA right now with Sean Duffy, who also runs transportation. But I guess what, how does all this play out from a U.S. perspective when you think about the moon and things like the Artemis mission and then the idea of going to Mars in a more meaningful way? I would say, you know, we can look at it from the numbers if you want. So looking at the U.S. investment in the space ecosystem, it's $77 billion. About $44 billion is national security, and the remainder is civil interests.

So they're not quite equal, but almost. And you can again see how they go hand in hand. But the other thing that I'll point out is a real focus on what the priorities are. So you mentioned Golden Dome as the national security priority, right, and protecting our interests too from and through space. On the civil side, we have a really clear focus on the Artemis program, getting back to the moon. We have 56 nations that have signed on. We want continuous Leo presence. And so a really great investment there that's going to continue as well. So I hope that

helps explain how they go hand in hand. The fact that we've seen some successful IPOs, year. There's more companies that are supposedly waiting in the wings or maybe looking to do a reverse merger via SPAC as well before the year is out. They're destined to be a lot more investor excitement, or I'll say, growing investor excitement around commercial space. What are you seeing from your key vantage point? Well, I'm really excited by these IPOs. It shows the maturity of the space market. They went through rigorous processes, right? They had a number of individuals looking into their legal, their financial, their operational approaches, and they have a multi-factor view of what their valuation is, which is really exciting,

and they did really well in their IPOs. So I love that aspect of it. And I'd point to the SNET index, which is an indicator of how all the space companies are doing on the market. And so when you compare that to other benchmark indices of U.S. companies on the stock market or global companies, space companies in the first half of 2025, they increased at a 25%. They had a 25% growth rate compared to these other benchmarks, which were about 5% and 10% growth. So we're seeing a lot of investor confidence. The IPOs show that these companies are maturing. They have a pathway to profitability, and I see this continuing in the future.

I feel like even just a couple of years ago, the focus was on launch and bringing down the cost to access space. And now increasingly it seems like there is more and more focus on in-space activities, whether it's manufacturing or being able to move. satellites around and space tugs or commercial space stations. I guess how to think about where we are in the chapters of the space economy as it does continue to emerge and grow. So we look at 12 different sub-sectors when it comes to the commercial space market, Morgan. And you mentioned one aspect of it, which is in-space servicing, assembly, and manufacturing. And that has continued to grow as well. It's had a 45% growth over the prior year. And this is an area which is really going to enable other space capabilities, right? ISAM is responsible for deorbiting dead satellites or

refueling some satellites so they have a longer lifespan. And so this, that's a key enabler for the continued use and access of space. We could also look at another growth. area of the commercial sector. And that's human spaceflight. And so, interestingly, in 2024, we had over a 600% growth over the prior year. And we saw a lot of space tourists getting out there. So I would say to answer your question, there's a lot of innovation, a lot of growth across multiple sectors, and more to come. 600% growth. That's a multiple number. Absolutely. And if you think about it, there are multiple companies that are contributing to it. So it even goes to show the resilience of the overall space market as well. And the thing about human space flight, it's a really tiny portion of the overall global space economy. So that's kind of why you have a bigger growth percentage.

Yeah. Are there certain areas of the space economy that are declining or are softer or weaker as we are seeing the shift in priorities, or is it sort of a rising tide that lifts all boats right now? For the most part, it's a rising tide, but there are some areas that are seeing a little bit of decline direct-to-home TV, for example. and there's a lot of competition in streaming. But ultimately, with position navigation and timing and direct-to-devise, direct-of-vehicles, we're just seeing its shift to a new area. How does this set us up for 2026? What are the big trends or factors that you're watching as we finish out this year and look to a new one? So I mentioned that the $613 billion space economy had a growth of 7.6% over the year prior. And even looking back almost 15 years, Morgan,

we've had continuous growth in the space economy. So this is a market that's resilient, that can stand the test of time. There's a lot of good reason for investor confidence. And so when you look forward to 2026 or I even have my eye on 2032 because that's when I'm expecting the space economy to reach the $1 trillion mark. And I think that will be a really great milestone for the whole space economy. Why 2032 specifically?

Yeah. Well, we use the five-year compound annual growth rate, and that's a 7.6%. And so if you extend that out a couple of years and you make assumptions that it will continue. Of course, we have a lot of reason to believe that growth will continue at that rate based on that 15-year prior trend. And so it's simply a mathematical extension of it. Wow.

Anything else that we should be watching or that you're particularly excited about as all of this continues to grow and materialize? Well, I'm excited by all the. opportunities that are out there in this space economy. I love how artificial intelligence is making space more accessible, easier to use the data that is out there. Of course, Space Foundation is really tuned into the risks. That may dampen our growth in the future. And so we are focused on space workforce for tomorrow and keeping that continuous pipeline of talent so that we have a workforce that can meet that new growth in the future. So really excited by that.

And, of course, really excited to bring everyone to symposium in the April time frame. We have 60 nations that come to this area, Colorado Springs, for the symposium. So I'm looking forward to that as well. I am too. Heather Pringle, CEO of Space Foundation. Thank you so much for joining me. Thank you. That does it for this episode of Manifest Space. Make sure you never miss a launch by following us wherever you get your podcasts, and by watching our coverage on Closing Bell overtime. I'm Morgan Brennan.