The Republic of Korea [hereafter ‘Korea’] is one of the most ambitious space powers in the OECD area and has rapidly expanded its capabilities since placing its first satellite in orbit in 1992. It is one of 12 economies or regions having demonstrated autonomous launch capability and successfully placed its first lunar orbiter, the Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO, named Danuri), into lunar orbit in December 2022.
The Space Economy at a Glance 2026
The Korea Augmentation Satellite System, designed to support safe aviation, became fully operational in 2024. In 2024, the Korea Aerospace Administration was established to co-ordinate space policy across ministries and lead efforts in R&D, industrial promotion and international co-operation. As of June 2026, Korea ranked 10th globally in terms of satellite ownership – 38% of which was commercial – and 12th for satellites launched since 2019.
In constant KRW and USD million, base year 2015
Source: OECD analysis based on institutional sources.
In 2025, Korea’s civilian institutional space budget reached USD 719.3 million (KRW 1 023 billion), mainly dedicated to space industry and satellite development, followed by space transportation (Figure 5.17). Key projects include the development of next-generation launchers and a microsatellite constellation for rapid revisit dual-use monitoring of the Korean peninsula and territorial waters. The country is furthermore developing a satellite navigation constellation for autonomous, high-precision positioning, timing and navigation services for deployment in 2035. Finally, building on the data from the Danuri lunar orbiter mission, Korea is preparing a robotic lunar landing in the early 2030s.
IP5 patent families, by priority date and applicant's location, using fractional counts
Note: IP5 patent families correspond to patent families filed in at least two offices worldwide, including at least one of the Five IP largest offices (IP5, i.e. the European Patent Office, EPO; the Japan Patent Office, JPO; the Korean Intellectual Property Office, KIPO; The China National Intellectual Property Administration, CNIPA; and the US Patent and Trademark Office, USPTO). Patents related to space-related technologies have been identified by the EPO using the EPO-PATSTAT 2025b data (https://www.epo.org/patstat).
Source: OECD, STI Micro-data Lab: Intellectual Property Database, http://oe.cd/ipstats, June 2026.
Korea’s space sector involves both space manufacturing and satellite services providers. The manufacture of equipment to exploit satellite data and signals plays an important role. Government has traditionally led space efforts in Korea, but it increasingly seeks to foster commercialisation through domestic product development and increased industry participation in projects. According to the Korea Aerospace Industry Survey, the Korean space sector had a total workforce of 11 147 (including higher education institutions and government agencies) in 2024 and generated commercial revenues of KRW 4 356.8 billion. This is an increase compared to previous years. Satellite services and related equipment manufacture accounted for more than 60% of commercial revenues.
Korea accounted for 7.1% of global space-related patents applications in the 2020-23 period, a small increase compared to 2010-13 (Figures 5.18). Korea has a negative revealed technological advantage (RTA), meaning that its share in space-related patenting is lower than its share in overall patenting activities. Korea’s relative specialisation in space technology patenting has decreased since 2010-13.
Fractional counts
Note: Perimeter of documents based on filtered journal titles and All Science Journal Classification codes in the Scopus database.
Source: OECD calculations based on Scopus Custom Data, Elsevier, Version 1.2026, April 2026.
In terms of space-related scientific production and excellence, Korea’s space literature (measured in fractional counts) has increased substantially since 2009, and its production per 100 000 inhabitants is above the OECD average (Figure 5.19). The share of internationally co-authored papers has decreased considerably since 2009 and is now at 25%. When looking at citations, a common proxy for scientific excellence, 5.5% of Korea’s space literature was in the top-10 percentile for citations in 2024. This is below the OECD average of 12%. Korea’s normalised citation score, comparing citation patterns within specific scientific fields, is below the world average in the All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) categories “earth and planetary sciences”, “physics and astronomy”, and “engineering”.
Based on data in the OECD Development Assistance Committee Creditor Reporting System database, Korea committed some 28.7 million constant US dollars in space-related official development assistance over the 2010-23 period, (Figure 5.20). Commitments mainly targeted disaster risk reduction measures, telecommunication and other economic development projects and environmental protection.
In constant USD million (base year=2023)
Source: Calculations based on OECD (2025[1])), “Creditor Reporting System (CRS)", OECD.stat (database), https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=CRS1 (accessed July 2025).
References
[4] Korea AeroSpace Administration (KASA) (2026), 2025 Survey of the Space Industry and Aerospace Manufacturing Industry: Results Report [2025년 우주산업 및 항공제조산업 결과 보고서], https://www.kasa.go.kr/prog/bbsArticle/BBSMSTR_000000000140/view.do?bbsId=BBSMSTR_00000000014.
[3] McDowell, J. (2026), Jonathan’s Space Report, https://www.planet4589.org/index.html (accessed on 23 June 2026).
[2] OECD (2026), STI Micro-data Lab: Intellectual Property Database, http://oe.cd/ipstats (accessed on June 2026).
[1] OECD (2025), Creditor Reporting System (CRS), database, https://data-explorer.oecd.rg.