Estimating the United States Space Economy Using Input-Output Frameworks

This paper examines two first-of-their-kind economic datasets about the United States (US) space sector that use input-output (I-O) frameworks at their foundation. We explain what these data tell us about the impact on the US economy stemming from National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) spending and the production of space-related goods and services. Overall, the data show NASA’s total economic output in 2019 was $64.3 billion and supported over 312,000 jobs. Additionally, space-related production was found to represent 0.5 percent of US gross domestic product in 2018. We describe the advantages of using I-O-based data like these over revenue-based economic reports that are commonly used in the space policy arena and that suffer from important measurement issues.