How Space Coast Companies Impact the US Economy

By  //  December 23, 2020

Brevard County is known throughout the world for our extra-terrestrial endeavors. Located around the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and the Kennedy Space Center, the Coast is now home to a number of big names.

As well as Elon Musk’s SpaceX, on the Space Coast you can find United Launch Alliance, Blue Origin and Boeing.

In Florida as a whole, there are more than 130,000 people employed by the aerospace sector, all in well-paid roles. Based on these statistics, we can assume that the aerospace sector contributes a healthy amount to the economy of Florida, and Brevard County.

The state of the space sector

For many years, man going into space was fueled by the objective of exploring and learning more. They were a part of public initiatives and therefore, funded by public money. This lead to a growth in the number of space companies setting up to serve the public exploration missions via private contracts.

Now, space exploration has taken something of a back-burner position in government priorities. This means that the majority of exploration is conducted by private companies.

As such, a new phase of space exploration has been entered. This is a commercial phase with a focus on profitability. More private entities have become interested in the sector, not just for extra-terrestrial purposes, but also for integrating space technology into our every day lives.

These new markets and sectors are worth a fortune. At the end of last year, a total of 170 different privately funded projects were worth more than $5.7 billion. This is a highly significant sum, accounting for a big slice of the local GDP.

Common services provided commercially include meteorology and climate monitoring, the monitoring of agriculture, fishing, and mining, monitoring of power plants, oil and gas pipelines and similar, urban mobility and similar.

Its impact on the US economy

The aerospace sector provides $374 billion to the United States GDP every year. This is around 1.8% which may not seem like much, but it equates to around 2.2 million salaried and tax-paying workers.

Therefore it’s reasonable to believe that the performance of this sector and the companies in it, could impact the strength of the US dollar.

With a global value of around $500 billion, mostly from US companies, it’s not hard to see how fluctuations in this amount could send the dollar plunging or soaring.

This is particularly interesting for those who choose to invest in the foreign exchange market, and are looking for the best forex bonus. In 2019 for example, NASA had an economic impact of $65 billion which would have contributed to the strength of the US dollar on the forex market.

So by looking at the performance, revenue, and strength of aerospace and space companies, investors can speculate how the dollar may perform. If the industry is looking resilient and registering successes like NASA in 2019, it might be worth investing, if not, it might be worth trading against the dollar instead.

The pandemic’s impact

As with many other industries, the COVID-19 pandemic caused economic issues in the aerospace sector. Launch schedules were canceled or postponed, production lines ground to a halt, staff were sent home, and sources of revenue from private financing were harder to come by. One large operator filed for bankruptcy and others struggled to reshuffle their cards.

But, despite high levels of uncertainty, a survey carried out by PwC found that the sector would remain resilient. Despite the pandemic, three particular segments of the market – space communications, satellite navigation, and earth observation – would remain in demand. The message was clear: those space companies need to be creative in their offerings and ready to adapt.

This is great news not just for the forex market and investors, but for Florida and Brevard County. These companies not only define the area but are a lifeline to many in terms of salary and career progression.

While there are many changes afoot in today’s world, it seems the space industry will learn to develop and evolve with it. Missions to Mars and beyond may be off for now, but demand for earth surveillance, satellite technology, and big data, means the companies of Space Coast are likely to be busy for many years to come.