Elon Musk’s SpaceX has officially overtaken Amazon to become the world’s fifth most valuable company, a milestone that underscores the widening gap between the UK’s fledgling space sector and the American private juggernauts. While the news may seem like a distant corporate battle, its ripples are being felt from Whitehall to the high street, as the UK Space Agency scrambles to keep pace.
SpaceX, valued at over $180 billion, now sits behind only Apple, Microsoft, Saudi Aramco, and Alphabet. The company’s meteoric rise is built on a combination of relentless innovation, government contracts, and a cost-cutting approach that has slashed launch expenses by 90% over two decades. For context, a single SpaceX launch now costs roughly $67 million, down from $400 million for a traditional expendable rocket. This is the real economy at work: lower costs for satellite deployment mean cheaper broadband for rural communities and faster data for logistics firms. But the benefits are not evenly shared.
Here in Britain, we are learning the hard way that space is not just about satellites and scientific curiosity. It is about jobs, skills, and regional prosperity. The UK Space Agency has committed to capture 10% of the global space market by 2030, a target that requires a fourfold increase in current activity. Yet our flagship projects, such as the SaxaVord spaceport in the Shetland Islands, have faced repeated delays. A recent launch attempt by Rocket Factory Augsburg ended with a static fire test anomaly, pushing back schedules once again.
Critics say the problem is not ambition but execution. The UK’s reliance on American launch providers like SpaceX for critical missions, such as the Skynet military satellites, leaves us exposed to price hikes and geopolitical whims. Meanwhile, British startups like Orbex and Skyrora struggle to secure the long-term funding needed to compete. The government’s new National Space Strategy commits £1.6 billion, but this is a fraction of the US investment, where NASA’s budget alone exceeds $25 billion.
For working people, the stakes are clear. The space sector could create up to 30,000 jobs in the UK by 2030, many outside the south-east. In Scotland, the space industry already supports 8,400 jobs with average salaries of £57,000, nearly double the median wage. But without a home-grown launch capability, we risk becoming a subcontractor to the American machine, paying premium prices for rides to orbit.
The lesson from SpaceX is that monopolies in the space industry are dangerous. When one company controls over 80% of commercial launches, it can dictate terms. British firms have already reported being quoted launch prices that are higher than those offered to US government clients. This is not a level playing field.
But there is hope. The UK’s strength lies in small satellite manufacturing, where companies like SSTL in Surrey lead globally. Our geographic position is ideal for polar orbits, and the government has committed to establishing a sovereign launch capability by 2025. However, that date is slipping, and each delay costs jobs and credibility.
As Musk’s SpaceX rewrites the rules of the space race, Britain must decide whether to be a spectator or a player. For the families in Salford or Aberdeen hoping their children will find work in the space sector, the answer cannot come soon enough. The real economy does not wait for the UK Space Agency to catch up. It moves at the speed of a Falcon 9 launch.
