Industry sectors
The EU Space market is growing – and growing fast. GNSS and EO combined global revenues are set to increase from more than EUR 260 billion in 2023 to EUR 590 billion by 2033. Meanwhile, the demand for Secure SATCOM services is expected to grow by a factor of 14 over the 2025–2040 period, to reach almost 190 Gbps in 2040.
Discover the 15 industry sectors that benefit directly from the EU Space Programme.
- Agriculture
While EO plays a vital role in such day-to-day farming operations as crop monitoring, sustainable nutrient management and soil restoration, farmers rely on the precise positioning of GNSS to guide their machinery, automate operations and increase yields. - Aviation and Drones
GNSS is an indispensable asset that supports all aspects of aviation, from implementing more efficient flights to safely integrating drone traffic into the airspace. Aviation also relies on EO to both monitor the weather and its environmental impact. - Climate, Environment, and Biodiversity
EO data drives policy decisions, enables accurate climate modelling, and improves our understanding of the impact climate change will have on essential ecosystems. GNSS, on the other hand, is used to track animals and conduct forest inventories. - Consumer Solutions, Tourism and Health
EU Space keeps us healthy, productive, and even entertained. Thanks to GNSS, our smartphones and wearable devices can track our fitness and get us where we need to be. It also makes ride sharing and contactless deliveries – along with a host of other services – possible. We can rely on EO data to monitor air quality and UV levels or to find the perfect waves for a day out surfing! - Emergency Management and Humanitarian Aid
When disaster strikes, communication, information, and location are key to saving lives. Copernicus and Galileo allow emergency and humanitarian aid actors to prevent and respond to crises, while GOVSATCOM provides secure, cost-efficient communication capabilities to security and safety-critical missions. - Energy and Raw Materials
The energy sector is powered by space technology, with electricity grids depending heavily on the timing and synchronisation provided by GNSS and renewable energy providers using EO to estimate annual energy production. In the raw materials sector, GNSS is used to monitor mining sites and guide machinery, while EO data can help identify sites with high mineral resources. - Fisheries and Aquaculture
While the sector uses GNSS to detect illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing activity and to improve safety at sea for fishing vessels, it depends on EO to monitor water salinity, temperature, and quality and to predict fish migration patterns. - Forestry
Space technology is an extremely valuable tool for monitoring, maintaining and managing the long-term sustainability of forests. While foresters use EO and GNSS to monitor the health of trees and track timber supply chains, regulators use them to prevent deforestation and degradation. - Infrastructure
Modern infrastructure is built – and increasingly run – on EU Space. On the one hand, GNSS supports safe and on-time construction and preventative maintenance, and its timing and synchronisation function is critical to mobile telecommunication networks. EO, on the other hand, is used for site selection and in designing more resilient infrastructure. - Insurance and Finance
The financial world relies on space technology, including GNSS timing and synchronisation to accurately timestamp financial transactions and EO data to compute parametric products that benefit both finance and insurance stakeholders. Insurers also benefit from EO data, the use of which brings increased granularity to risk selection and pricing. - Maritime and Inland Waterways
EO and GNSS help optimise ship routing, leading to a more efficient, safer, and sustainable maritime sector. Furthermore, in addition to being a critical tool for navigation, GNSS also supports the transition towards more digital and autonomous vessels and smart ports. - Rail
GNSS has become a fundamental tool for asset management, maintenance, and train driving optimisation, along with a range of safety-related applications. EO also contributes to safety by providing information on risk related to vegetation, landslides or floods encroaching onto the railway. - Road and Automotive
GNSS has long been used to support emergency services, track dangerous goods, implement road user charging schemes, reduce traffic congestion and enable autonomous functions in vehicles. EO also plays a role in congestion control, along with supporting road safety and emissions monitoring. - Space
While the focus tends to be on how GNSS benefits users here on Earth, it also plays a significant role in space. For instance, real-time GNSS data is used for absolute and relative spacecraft navigation and to derive EO measurements. As the New Space sector continues to grow, expect to see increasing demand for GNSS-based solutions for space. - Urban Development and Cultural Heritage
Resilient cities depend on EO data for everything from urban planning to managing growth and infrastructure, while the precise positioning of GNSS enables efficient transport networks. Space also helps preserve Europe’s unique cultural heritage, with EO being used to monitor sites, GNSS used to map sites, and both being used to help preserve and restore sites.