Top 10 Spacex Competitors In 2023

SpaceX is also known as the Space Exploration Technologies Corp. Founded in 2002 by Elon Musk, the company has been the leading manufacture of aerospace equipment and space transportation services in the US. The main aim of the company has been to minimize the financial expenditures for space transportation to make sure that the dream of colonization of the planets like Mars is a success. The company’s estimated revenue has been over $ 2.5 billion as per the statistics of 2020.

With over 7000 employees, the company has been among the top contenders of the aerospace industry competing with companies like Boeing whole exploring the space as its USP. The company has been funded by the military contracts and the launch contracts from various Geostationary Satellites launch as well as general funding of the missions for colonization of Mars.

NAME	SpaceX
FOUNDED	2002
HEADQUARTERS	Hawthorne, California
SIC CODE	3821
STATUS	Private
INDUSTRY SECTOR	Aerospace
EMPLOYEES	7,000 (Nov, 2020)
TRADING SYMBOL	SpaceX

SpaceX similar companies:

Boeing, Blue Origin. Virgin Galactic, Astranis, ULA, Spaceflight Industries, Rocket Lab, SES, Space Adventures, and Masten Space Systems.

How the company makes money

Space launches and funding

The main source of the revenue for SpaceX has been the launching of the rockets and the space programs. With over $2 billion in the revenue with the launching of the rockets and space programs, and starships and the reusable launch programs, the company has been seeking funding. In 2015, the funding of over $1 billion was gathered from Google and Fidelity.

In the aerospace industry, SpaceX launched the Reusable launching systems for Falcon 9 which has revolutionized the world of aerospace. The company has gained contracts from the Naval Contracts for the NASA Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) as well as commercial cargo and crew services. Alongside that, the US Defense Contracts based on the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) and Space Test Program 2 (STP-2) have been awarded to the company which has been the current missions of the company under process. Private and international contracts have allowed the company to gain over $12 billion in contract revenues.

As a company in the aerospace industry, SpaceX has negated with the competitors in the last 6 years with the successful launch of Falcon 9 and many other successful programs. The recent technological development has led to the emergence of ten top competitors which the company will have to deal with for success in the future.

BOEING

Boeing is the largest manufacturers of aircraft, Boeing planes, satellites, rockets, and missiles. It was founded in 1916 under the name of Pacific Aero Products Ltd.   Being the oldest company in the aerospace industry, Boeing has a gigantic employee network of over 153k employees with the central office based in Chicago, Illinois, USA. The company has generated a revenue of over $93.3 billion in 2017. The fatal crashes of the 737 MAX in 2018 and 2020 dripped to revenue to $76 billion but the business has been stable since then.

Boeing has been a major competitor to SpaceX owing to its launch of the global positioning systems, star liners, space launch systems, and satellites. Since the company has a strong and loyal customer base with a stronghold in the industry, the only way to defeat them is by launching products in the aerospace sector which are innovative, safe, cost-cutting, and composed of defined and edged technology.

BLUE ORIGIN

Blue Origin has been the brainchild of Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com. Founded in 2000, the company has been a leading private manufacturer of aerospace equipment for space. The company is partially focused on the production of the rocket-powered vertical takeoff and vertical landing (VTVL) vehicles. These will be used for accessing the suborbital and orbital space.

The company has over 2500 employees, based in Kent, Washington. With over $500 million of investments done from Amazon.com subsidiaries, the company has been working in collaborations with NASA, DARPA, United Launch Alliance, and US Space Force for various space plans. Since it is in its initial phases, the company has generated only $20 Million in 2020. This is one of the major reasons that SpaceX is way ahead to the company in terms of product development and revenues.

VIRGIN GALACTIC

Virgin Galactic is a part of the Virgin Group, founded in 2004 in Las Cruces in New Mexico. The company is a spaceflight manufacturer providing commercial spaceflights and the suborbital spaceflights. The company has partnered up with OneWeb Internet service providers, NASA, UnderArmour, and Boom technology in the last decade but the results for those collaborations have not yielded major contracts for the company.

The space tourism sector has been explored by the company where Jeff Bezos has offered them the competition with Blue Origins. The company reported a revenue of only $3.8 million while the losses accumulated to $ 210.9 million with a workforce of only 800 employees.

ASTRANIS

Astranis is a company that has been manufacturing low cost and small telecommunication satellites. The company was founded in 2014 in San Francisco, California, USA. Since the company has been fairly new into the market, the services are limited to the communication satellites yet. With over $50 million gained in funding and an employee base of 100, the company will be exploring the satellites, rockets, and space programs in the future.

The company generated a revenue of $5 million in 2020. Despite the lack of experience, the company will be a strong competitor with the latest research and development in the spaceflight launches. Being a recent startup and loaded with technological innovation, SpaceX needs to step up its game for Astranis in the coming business years.

UNITED LAUNCH ALLIANCE (ULA)

United Launch Alliance or ULA is a company that has been providing the services of launching while manufacturing rockets and launching them for orbital spaceflights. The company was founded in 2006 in Centennial, Colorado, USA. The company has over 2500 employees. With the Atlas, Delta, and now Vulcan rocket family the company has been aiming to explore space with its revolutionary rockets. The telecommunication, weather, national security, and many other important sectors have been using its facilities. It has been a subsidiary of Boeing.

The company generated a revenue of $2 billion in 2020 Partnering up with government organizations like DoD and NASA have worked in favor of the company so it is a tough competitor for SpaceX. Innovation will be key to deal with this sort of competition in the future.

SPACEFLIGHT INDUSTRIES

Spaceflight Industries is an American based aerospace company. It was founded in 2010 in Herndon, Virginia, USA. The company has been an expert at the provision of the rideshare space launches based on the secondary payloads and geospatial intelligence technologies. With its Blacksky mission, the company launched the Global-1 and Global-2 communication satellites which have been changing the dynamics of the spaceflight operations and service.

The company generated a revenue of $100 million in 2020. With an employee force of 200, the company is a competitor to look out for with its coming ventures with partners like NASA in the future.

ROCKET LAB INDUSTRIES

Rocket Lab has been the private aerospace manufacturing company based in Long Beach, California, USA. The company was launched in 2006 for providing aerospace manufacturing services and smallsat launch provision services. The company has over 500 employees. With the Electron Rockets, Rutherford engine rockets, Curie rocket engine, and Photon Satellite bus, the company has the experience to become a greater competition in the future.

With over $12 million in revenue, the company will be making its first launch for NASA’s ElaNA program in 2020 from Virginia. This has given high hopes to the company for the 2030 vision. With a stronghold in the product development strategy, SpaceX will have to deal with Rocket Lab innovatively.

SPACE ADVENTURES

Spaceflight Adventures is a company based in Vienna, Virginia, the USA which was founded in 1998. The company is involved in the exploration of the lunar spaceflights and suborbital spaceflights. The space tourism has been offered in the past by the company so it will offer great competition to SpaceX in this aspect. The spacewalk and low-Earth orbit missions are the ones that make the company a highlight in comparison to the competitors.

The company has 103 employees. The company generated a revenue of $4.4 million in 2020. With hardly any funding, the company is seeking funds for further future works and missions. It is a tough competitor considering its effective space in the space tourism sector.

MASTEN SPACE SYSTEMS

Masen Space System is a company based in Mojave, California, and the USA which was founded in 2004. The company has been the startup with only 13 employees and generated a revenue of $13 million. The company has been carrying out the services of the line of vertical takeoff and vertical landing rockets. The services which the company has been providing includes unscrewed research which will be carried out using the sub-orbital spaceflights. With the current research and development programs, the company is exploring robotic orbital spaceflight launches that will change the course of the spaceflight industry forever,

Although the company has been a great metro in terms of the vertical landing technologies as well as EDL Testbeds, the expansion of the company has not been as progressive. Xombie, Xoie, Cutlass are some of the projects launched by the company. It can be a tough competitor if it can procure the right funding in the future.

Société Européenne des Satellites (SES S.A)

SES S.A or Société Européenne des Satellites is a company based in Château de Betzdorf, Betzdorf, Luxembourg. The company was founded in 1985. The company has a long history of providing telecommunication services and data connectivity services all over the world. The company has over 70 satellites in the orbits of the geostationary orbit (GEO) and medium Earth orbit (MEO). With such an established history, the company has been exploring the coverage of the global satellite for many years. The company works with Intelsat, Eutelsat, and Telesat for providing global coverage of the media and broadcasting serves.

Its Satellite fleet SES, AMC, Astra, NSS, and O3b have been governing the broadcasting networks for many decades. The company has over 2,100 employees and generated a revenue of $2.2 billion in 2020. With its efficacy in the communication satellites sector, it is a tough competitor top look forward to.

CONCLUSION

The top 10 SpaceX competitors are: Boeing, Blue Origin. Virgin Galactic, Bigelow Aerospace, ULA, Spaceflight Industries, Rocket Lab, Masten Space Systems, Space Adventures, and SES. All of these companies have been able to raise over 80.0B between their estimated 0.2 M employees. Since most of the competitors listed in the table have revenues in $ Millions, it can be concluded that the competition which SpaceX is facing is mostly in the category of innovations with the satellite communication, product development, and research in recent times. Many startups have been exploring development in terms of the use of robots and vertical landing techniques. With Boeing being the biggest aerospace company to date it is the quality of the SpaceX equipment and space launches that can beat it. The use of the skilled workforce will be effective in the long run with effective funding which has been the major pros of SpaceX.

COMPETITORS STATS

NAME	FOUNDED	HEADQUARTERS	EMPLOYEES	Revenue
Boeing	1916	Chicago, Illinois, USA	154k	$76 B
Blue Origin	2000	Kent, Washington, USA	2500	$20 M
Virgin Galactic	2004	Las Cruces, New Mexico	800	$3.8 M
Astranis	2014	San Francisco, California, USA	100	$5 M
ULA	2006	Centennial, Colorado, USA	2500	$2 B
Spaceflight Industries	2010	Herndon, Virginia, USA	100-200	$ 100 M
Rocket Lab	2006	Long Beach, California, USA	500	$ 12 M
Masten Space Systems	2004	Mojave, California, USA	13	$13 M
Space Adventures	1998	Vienna, Virginia, USA	103	$ 4.4 M
SES	19	Luxembourg	2100	$ 2.2 B