Global SSA Market Overview and Forecast 2023-2031

Space Situational Awareness (SSA) is the practice of tracking objects in space, identifying them, establishing their orbits, understanding the environment they're operating in, and predicting their future positions and threats to their operations. The data is used to predict conjunctions between objects and warn space operators of potentially dangerous close approaches to enable collision avoidance maneuvers.

The SSA market size was $1.58b in 2023, and the market is projected to reach $2.4b by 2031 with a CAGR of 5.38%.

Market drivers:

growth in the number of uncontrolled objects (i.e. debris) in LEO orbit. This is caused by an increase in the number of inactive satellites in orbit (those that have completed their service and are as to date in orbit as debris);

a sharp increase in the number of spacecraft launched annually. ~41k spacecraft will be launched between 2024 and 2031, which will increase the chance of collision in orbit;

expected growth in demand for SSA services from commercial spacecraft operators;

in the coming years, the following satellite projects will be in the active deployment phase: 4 mega-constellations of communications satellites with a declared number of satellites of more than 10k in each (Starlink, Honghu-3, Guowang, G60) and 6 large communications constellations (SDA (Transport Layer + Tracking Layer), Telesat (Lightspeed), Amazon, Rivada Space Networks, and OneWeb SG). For such large constellations, orbital collision avoidance is critical, as in the event of a collision in the target orbit, a significant amount of debris is generated, which can damage the rest of the operator's spacecraft in this orbit. In general, this situation applies to any constellation in which it is planned to place several spacecraft on one orbital plane. It is typical for the purposes of remote sensing and Communication - the most common space applications at the moment;

it is expected that in the coming years, more than 90% of all new spacecraft will be equipped with propulsion systems. That will increase satellites with propulsion systems, without which satellites cannot perform collision avoidance maneuvers in orbit;

the topic of space debris is popular because governments are actively promoting a standard about the huge amount of debris in space and the need to catalog it even better (add smaller objects) and gradually remove it, so governments encourage commercial players to enter the market.

61 commercial companies involved in the SSA market were identified: 21 well-established companies and 40 NewSpace startups.

Among the companies operating in the SSA market, many large companies have been working in the Aerospace & Defense niche for a long time: Lockheed Martin, Kratos, GMV, and Numerica, which develop platforms/software for SSA purposes. Software from these companies has long been used by government/military customers.