Space markets, measured by what the government buys.
From FY2016 to FY2026, federal agencies obligated $125.90B on 147,543 space only contract actions. We read the public records behind that number, under rules fixed in advance, so you can cite and audit it.
Space only, FY2016 to FY2026
FY means the federal fiscal year, October to September. An obligation is money the government has legally committed on a contract. Dollars are nominal: not adjusted for inflation. FY2026 closed on 30 September but was pulled on 2026-10-13, before the Department of Defense (DoD) reporting lag of up to 90 days had passed, so DoD actions late in the year are missing. It is drawn dashed or shaded, and all year totals include it as pulled.
The approach
Start from what the government buys.
Most pictures of the space economy come from the supply side. Company revenue. Launch counts. Funding rounds. Each tells you what sellers say about themselves.
We start from the buyer. The federal government reports its unclassified contract actions to a public system, FPDS (the Federal Procurement Data System). Other transaction agreements, classified awards and grants are not in it.
Read with the rules written down first, those records show how much is bought, by which agencies, how often more than one company bid, and how much reaches newer firms.
It is a count of what was recorded, under rules fixed in advance. Where a figure is a proxy, the page says so.
Methods
Three rules behind every figure.
Anyone with the same public records and our published rules can reproduce these figures.
Every page, every year
We download every page of records for each code and fiscal year, then check our count against the official total. Short years are flagged, not filled.
Definitions before data
Scope, fiscal year, competition, buyer and vendor rules were fixed before any number was computed. They are published word for word.
A separate program checks the numbers
A second program, written separately, reads the raw pages again, checks each page against its recorded fingerprint, recomputes the headline figures and prints pass or fail.
Module one Live
Federal demand
How much the government committed to buy each year, how many contracts were new, how many were open to bids, and how much went to newer companies. Two views: space only, and the full study scope.