Space companies
There is no true count of the world's space companies, because most are private and disclose nothing. This directory tracks 178 of them across 22 countries, added by hand since 2019: 127 private and operating, 14 that have since listed publicly, and 15 acquired. Every funding figure carries a source link.
Space company or space startup?
A startup is an early-stage, privately held space company, roughly pre-seed to Series B. Space company is the wider term, and it includes the ones that outgrew the label. This directory keeps all of them, because a list that quietly drops its graduates and its failures will tell you the wrong thing about the industry. If you want only the early ones, that is the startup directory.
The publicly listed ones
14 companies here have gone public. Several listed in Tokyo rather than New York, which is worth noticing on its own: Japan takes space companies public far earlier than the US does.
| Astra | Went public in 2021, later taken private again; long past startup stage. |
|---|---|
| Astroscale | Listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in 2024: kept in the directory for the record. |
| Axelspace | Public since August 2025 via Axelspace Holdings (TSE Growth: 402A). |
| Blue Origin | Long past startup: kept in the directory for the record. |
| Firefly Aerospace | Public since August 2025 (NASDAQ: FLY): kept in the directory for the record. |
| iQPS | Public since December 2023 (TSE Growth: 5595). |
| ispace | Listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in 2023: kept in the directory for the record. |
| Maritime Launch Services | Publicly listed in Canada since 2022. |
| Momentus | Went public via SPAC in 2021; long past startup stage. |
| Planet | Public since 2021 (NYSE: PL): kept in the directory for the record. |
| Rocket Lab | Public since 2021 (NASDAQ: RKLB): kept in the directory for the record. |
| SpaceX | Long past startup: kept in the directory for the record. |
| Spire | Public since 2021 (NYSE: SPIR): kept in the directory for the record. |
| Synspective | Public since December 2024 (TSE Growth: 290A). |
The acquired ones
15 companies we track were bought. Each profile names the acquirer and the year.
| Accion Systems | An affiliate of Tracker Capital Management took a majority stake in July 2021, alongside a $42M Series C. |
|---|---|
| Altius Space | Acquired by Voyager Space in 2019. |
| Atomos Space | Acquired by Katalyst Space Technologies in 2025. |
| Capella Space | Acquired by IonQ in 2025. |
| Earthcube | Rebranded to Preligens in 2020; acquired by Safran in 2024. |
| Exo-Space | Acquired by Sidus Space in August 2023. |
| FluroSat | Merged with Dagan in 2021 to form Regrow Ag. |
| HOSTmi | Acquired by Precious Payload in May 2022. |
| Kubos | Acquired by Xplore in April 2022, together with its Major Tom mission-control software. |
| Made In Space | Acquired by Redwire in 2020. The old madeinspace.us domain now hosts unrelated content and is no longer linked. |
| Nanoracks | Acquired by Voyager Space; now part of Voyager Technologies. |
| OneWeb | Acquired by Eutelsat in 2023; now operates as Eutelsat OneWeb. |
| Phase Four | Broken up in 2025: the Hall-effect thruster line was sold to Apex, and the multi-mode propulsion tech plus the Hawthorne facility to Quantum Space. |
| Sensar | Itility Group acquired a majority stake in July 2025. |
| Space Angels | The Space Angels platform became Space Capital. |
The largest private ones
True Anomaly Autonomous spacecraft and software for space security and orbital pursuit training
Stoke Space Fully reusable Nova rocket with a novel regeneratively cooled second stage
Astranis Space Technologies Corp Next generation internet satellites
Axiom Space Commercial space stations
Apex Productized satellite buses on assembly lines instead of one-off builds
Impulse Space Mira and Helios orbital transfer vehicles, founded by SpaceX employee number one
K2 Space Mega-class satellite buses built for the heavy-lift launch era
Varda Space Orbital manufacturing
Space companies by sector
20 sectors with enough companies to be worth a page of their own.
32 companies · 10 countries
Earth Observation26 companies · 11 countries
Propulsion20 companies · 7 countries
Communications & Connectivity19 companies · 7 countries
Satellites16 companies · 5 countries
Logistics15 companies · 4 countries
Software15 companies · 6 countries
Defense & Space Domain Awareness14 companies · 5 countries
Information & Research9 companies · 5 countries
In-Space Manufacturing8 companies · 5 countries
Debris Removal & Servicing7 companies · 3 countries
Rovers7 companies · 3 countries
Biosphere6 companies · 4 countries
Habitats6 companies · 2 countries
Components & Subsystems6 companies · 3 countries
Space Resources & Mining6 companies · 3 countries
Space Power & Energy5 companies · 3 countries
Lunar5 companies · 2 countries
Media & Education5 companies · 3 countries
Ground Segment & Tracking4 companies · 1 countries
Questions
How many space companies are there?
Nobody can give you a true total, because most space companies are private and never disclose anything. Space Bandits tracks 178 of them across 22 countries: 127 private and operating, 14 that have since gone public, 15 acquired, and the rest shut down or dormant. Every one was added by hand and every funding figure carries a source link.
What is the difference between a space company and a space startup?
A startup is an early-stage, privately held space company, usually pre-seed to Series B. "Space company" is the wider term: it also covers the ones that outgrew the label by listing publicly, being acquired, or simply getting large. This directory keeps all of them, because dropping the graduates and the failures would tell you the wrong thing about the industry.
Which space companies are publicly traded?
14 companies in this directory have gone public: Astra, Astroscale, Axelspace, Blue Origin, Firefly Aerospace, iQPS, ispace, Maritime Launch Services and others. Several listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange rather than a US market, which is a pattern worth noticing: Japan takes space companies public far earlier than the US does.
Which space companies have been acquired?
15 companies we track have been acquired, including Accion Systems, Altius Space, Atomos Space, Capella Space, Earthcube. Each profile names the acquirer and the year.
Where does this list come from?
It is curated by hand, one company at a time, since 2019. Nothing is scraped from another aggregator. Funding rounds link to the reporting that documents them, statuses come from the public record, and companies whose status we cannot verify are labelled dormant rather than guessed at.
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