The EU’s production of spacecraft and launch vehicles totalled €5,600 million in 2022. This represents a 24 % increase from €4,500 million in 2010, Eurostat reports.
EU production peaked in 2016 at €6,240 million and remained high until 2019 (at €6,000 million each year between 2017 and 2019), driven by continued public investment in space (both by the EU and the European Space Agency). However, the COVID-19 virus outbreak led to a significant decline in production, which fell to €4,000 million in 2021, the lowest since 2010. The 2022 figure therefore indicates a recovery of the sector.
Exports of spacecraft and launch vehicles from the EU in 2022 will amount to €512 million, the lowest level since the beginning of the series. In contrast, the highest export levels were recorded in 2012 and 2019, at €1,744 million and €1,738 million respectively.
EU imports peaked between 2015 and 2018, with values ranging from €1,865 million to €1,468 million. These high values were driven predominantly by imports into France from outside the EU. Conversely, the lowest figure was recorded in 2019 at €820 million.
While production was relatively high in 2022, imports and exports continued the downward trends that began in 2018 and 2019 respectively.
This information comes from new data on the EU space economy, published today by Eurostat in collaboration with the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC), the Directorate-General for Defence Industry and Space (DEFIS) and the European Space Agency (ESA) as part of the experimental statistics.
