The Space Economy at a Glance 2026

Germany is one of Europe’s leading space nations, a founding ESA member and its largest contributor in the 2025 ministerial subscriptions. It hosts key European space institutions, including ESA’s European Astronaut Centre in Cologne and European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, as well as EUMETSAT’s headquarters in Darmstadt and the European Southern Obervatory’s headquarters in Garching.

Germany also has a dense industrial and innovation base, with strengths in satellite systems, operations, earth observation, exploration, launcher propulsion and downstream applications, supported by ESA Business Incubation Centres in Bavaria, Northern Germany, North Rhine-Westphalia and Hessen/Baden-Württemberg. In terms of orbital assets, Germany ranked eighth globally for active satellites in June 2026, 49% of which were commercially operated, and also eighth for satellites launched since 2019.

In 2025, the German civilian government space budget reached USD 2 776 million (EUR 2 456.8 million), including national activities, contributions to ESA and Eumetsat, as well as estimated contributions to the European Union (EU) Space Programme, which is mainly based on each country’s share of the EU’s aggregated gross national income (Figure 5.9). The greatest share of combined national and ESA funding was dedicated to earth observation, followed by launchers. Funding levels have remained stable since 2015. In 2025, Germany announced a major military space funding package of 35 EUR billion (USD 41 billion) up to 2030. This would involve support for new satellite constellations (e.g. early warning, secure communications), space system hardening against cyberattacks, improved redundancies and secure access to space.

Germany’s space sector spans across the whole value chain from manufacturing to data/signal exploitation, including both incumbents and start-ups. The sector generated an estimated EUR 11.69 billion in revenues, employing a workforce of 30 940, according to the survey and modelling conducted by the German Space Agency.

Germany accounted for 7.8% of global space-related patent applications in 2020-23, the same as in 2010-13., as shown in Figure 5.10. Germany has a neutral revealed technological advantage (RTA), meaning that its share in space-related patenting is equal to its share in overall patenting activities. Germany’s relative specialisation in space technology patenting has increased since 2010-13.

In terms of space-related scientific production [hereafter ‘space literature’], Germany is among the top producers, following China and the United States (Figure 5.11). Production has increased over time, while the share of papers that are internationally co-authored has remained stable and high. When looking at citations, a common proxy for scientific excellence, 14% of Germany’s space literature was in the top-10 percentile for citations in 2024. This is above the OECD average of 12%. Germany’s normalised citation score, comparing citation patterns within specific scientific fields, is above the world average in the All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) categories “earth and planetary sciences” and “physics and astronomy”.

Based on data in the OECD Development Assistance Committee Creditor Reporting System database, Germany committed some 48.6.7 million constant US dollars in space-related official development assistance over the 2010-23 period, (Figure 5.12). Commitments mainly targeted environmental protection (biodiversity, environmental policy, environmental and forestry research) and rural and agricultural development.

[3] McDowell, J. (2026), Jonathan’s Space Report, https://www.planet4589.org/index.html (accessed on 23 June  2026).

[1] OECD (2026), STI Micro-data Lab: Intellectual Property Database, http://oe.cd/ipstats (accessed on  June 2026).

[2] OECD (2025), Creditor Reporting System (CRS), database, https://data-explorer.oecd.rg.