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Live ranking

The best space industry employers, ranked

First the employers hiring today, ordered by what an application to each is worth (referral partners get a disclosed lift), then the full list of every one we follow. Compare pay across every employer, see the highest-paying employers, or browse by kind of work.

Live roles updated 29 Oct 2026, 19:01 UTCEvery pay figure names its source. Latest data pull: 29 Oct 2026.

Top 47 space industry employers to apply to now

One number sets the order: the value of an application. For each of the 47 employers with live openings it multiplies two things. First, how likely an applicant is to get hired there, counted from people who applied (those hired, plus those still in the running). Second, the pay its roles usually state, taken from the rates on its board. Where an employer has thin data of its own, its figures borrow from the all-employer average, more so the thinner its record. That hourly value then gets a referral boost: employers that pay us a fee when you sign up through our links get 20% to 100% extra, scaled by what a visit there is worth to us, and all others get none. Tap any score to open its parts, or line all 47 up figure by figure.

  1. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $154k/yr
    Expected value a year
    n/a
  2. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $154k/yr
    Expected value a year
    n/a
  3. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $136k/yr
    Expected value a year
    n/a
  4. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $101k/yr
    Expected value a year
    n/a
  5. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $140k/yr
    Expected value a year
    n/a
  6. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $140k/yr
    Expected value a year
    n/a
  7. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $144k/yr
    Expected value a year
    n/a
  8. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $140k/yr
    Expected value a year
    n/a
  9. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $140k/yr
    Expected value a year
    n/a
  10. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $140k/yr
    Expected value a year
    n/a
  11. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $146k/yr
    Expected value a year
    n/a
  12. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $140k/yr
    Expected value a year
    n/a
  13. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $132k/yr
    Expected value a year
    n/a
  14. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $180k/yr
    Expected value a year
    n/a
  15. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $140k/yr
    Expected value a year
    n/a
  16. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $159k/yr
    Expected value a year
    n/a
  17. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $140k/yr
    Expected value a year
    n/a
  18. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $154k/yr
    Expected value a year
    n/a
  19. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $140k/yr
    Expected value a year
    n/a
  20. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $132k/yr
    Expected value a year
    n/a
  21. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $152k/yr
    Expected value a year
    n/a
  22. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $163k/yr
    Expected value a year
    n/a
  23. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $198k/yr
    Expected value a year
    n/a
  24. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $125k/yr
    Expected value a year
    n/a
  25. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $140k/yr
    Expected value a year
    n/a
  26. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $143k/yr
    Expected value a year
    n/a
  27. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $175k/yr
    Expected value a year
    n/a
  28. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $138k/yr
    Expected value a year
    n/a
  29. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $155k/yr
    Expected value a year
    n/a
  30. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $117k/yr
    Expected value a year
    n/a
  31. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $112k/yr
    Expected value a year
    n/a
  32. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $140k/yr
    Expected value a year
    n/a
  33. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $146k/yr
    Expected value a year
    n/a
  34. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $139k/yr
    Expected value a year
    n/a
  35. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $137k/yr
    Expected value a year
    n/a
  36. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $140k/yr
    Expected value a year
    n/a
  37. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $150k/yr
    Expected value a year
    n/a
  38. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $117k/yr
    Expected value a year
    n/a
  39. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $140k/yr
    Expected value a year
    n/a
  40. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $140k/yr
    Expected value a year
    n/a
  41. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $172k/yr
    Expected value a year
    n/a
  42. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $119k/yr
    Expected value a year
    n/a
  43. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $138k/yr
    Expected value a year
    n/a
  44. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $154k/yr
    Expected value a year
    n/a
  45. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $114k/yr
    Expected value a year
    n/a
  46. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $132k/yr
    Expected value a year
    n/a
  47. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $156k/yr
    Expected value a year
    n/a

Where does the hire chance come from? At a referral partner, from its own list of the applicants we sent, followed stage by stage until an offer. Everywhere else, from applicants who reported back how far they reached. An application still open is scored at its remaining odds of an offer, and those odds shrink as the wait grows. Typical pay uses the same rates as every other pay figure here; a role with no stated rate is set at the average. How the ranking works.

Every space industry employer we track

Launch & propulsion

Building Nova, a fully and rapidly reusable rocket.

Firefly Aerospace logo

Firefly Aerospace

Launch and lunar landers

120 open

Launches, lands and operates space systems from Earth to the Moon and beyond.

Blue Origin logo

Blue Origin

Launch and lunar landers

1,442 open

Builds the New Shepard and New Glenn rockets and the Blue Moon lunar lander.

Boeing logo

Boeing

Space and launch (part of an aerospace prime)

64 open

Starliner, the SLS core stage, the X-37B and the Space Station, inside an aerospace prime.

Dawn Aerospace logo

Dawn Aerospace

Spaceplanes and propulsion

23 open

Develops reusable spaceplanes and refuellable satellite propulsion.

Builds launch vehicles to give satellites access to space from Europe.

SpaceX logo

SpaceX

Launch and satellite broadband

2,257 open

Designs, manufactures and launches advanced rockets and spacecraft.

Ursa Major logo

Ursa Major

Rocket propulsion

116 open

American-built propulsion: liquid rocket engines and solid rocket motors.

Builds reusable rockets that make access to space more reliable and routine.

Rocket Lab logo

Rocket Lab

Launch and spacecraft

485 open

Builds the Electron and Neutron launch vehicles and spacecraft and their components.

Spacecraft & stations

Muon Space logo

Muon Space

Satellite constellations

139 open

Designs, builds and operates mission-optimized satellite constellations.

Outpost logo

Outpost

Space logistics and return

14 open

Reusable infrastructure for space logistics and manufacturing.

Turion Space logo

Turion Space

Spacecraft and space awareness

8 open

Spacecraft for space domain awareness and in-space services.

Momentus logo

Momentus

In-space transport

9 open

Orbital transfer vehicles and in-space infrastructure services.

Inversion Space logo

Inversion Space

Reentry vehicles

83 open

Making space a transportation layer for Earth.

Albedo logo

Albedo

Very-low-orbit imaging satellites

5 open

Very-low-Earth-orbit satellites for high-resolution imagery.

Varda Space Industries logo

Varda Space Industries

In-space manufacturing and reentry

119 open

The first orbital manufacturing and reentry platform.

K2 Space logo

K2 Space

Satellite manufacturer

213 open

Building the largest satellites in orbit.

Apex logo

Apex

Satellite buses

126 open

Mass-manufacturing productized satellite platforms.

Starfish Space logo

Starfish Space

Satellite servicing

12 open

Satellite servicing spacecraft that dock with satellites in orbit.

True Anomaly logo

True Anomaly

Space security

202 open

Spacecraft and software for space security.

Axiom Space logo

Axiom Space

Space stations and spacesuits

119 open

Building a commercial space station and the next generation of spacesuits.

Northrop Grumman logo

Northrop Grumman

Space systems (part of a defense prime)

60 open

Satellites, space telescopes, cargo spacecraft and rocket boosters, inside a defense prime.

Voyager Technologies logo

Voyager Technologies

Space stations and defense

162 open

Defense, national security and space technology, including the Starlab space station.

NASA's lab for robotic space exploration, managed by Caltech.

Terran Orbital logo

Terran Orbital

Satellite manufacturer

29 open

Satellite manufacturer, a Lockheed Martin company.

Vast logo

Vast

Space stations

174 open

Developing next-generation space stations and space infrastructure.

Astranis logo

Astranis

Satellite manufacturer and operator

185 open

Designs, builds and operates high-orbit satellites for sovereign connectivity.

Space data & services

Hubble Network logo

Hubble Network

Satellite Bluetooth network

16 open

A satellite network that connects Bluetooth devices directly to space.

Xona Space Systems logo

Xona Space Systems

Satellite navigation

52 open

Navigation infrastructure: centimeter-level positioning from low Earth orbit.

Quindar logo

Quindar

Mission operations software

17 open

Software for operating satellites and space missions.

Loft Orbital logo

Loft Orbital

Space infrastructure as a service

58 open

Space infrastructure that lets any organization fly a mission.

Epsilon3 logo

Epsilon3

Operations software

3 open

Software that helps teams plan and track complex operations.

Slingshot Aerospace logo

Slingshot Aerospace

Space domain awareness

11 open

Space operations intelligence and autonomy.

BlackSky logo

BlackSky

Earth observation

36 open

Space-based intelligence from real-time low-orbit satellite imagery.

Northwood Space logo

Northwood Space

Ground stations

59 open

Phased-array ground stations that take space missions further, faster.

Astroscale logo

Astroscale

On-orbit servicing

43 open

On-orbit services: debris removal, life extension and inspection.

ICEYE logo

ICEYE

Radar imaging satellites

174 open

Synthetic-aperture radar satellites and the intelligence drawn from them.

An optical data-relay network in orbit for real-time data delivery.

RTX logo

RTX

Space sensors and ground systems (part of a defense prime)

6 open

Space sensors, payloads and satellite ground systems, inside a defense and aerospace prime.

Vantor logo

Vantor

Earth observation

129 open

Earth-imaging satellites and geospatial intelligence, formerly Maxar Intelligence.

Planet logo

Planet

Earth observation

101 open

Daily satellite imagery and insights about our changing planet.

Spire Global logo

Spire Global

Space-based data

32 open

Space-based intelligence for government, weather and climate, and aviation.

AST SpaceMobile logo

AST SpaceMobile

Satellite-to-phone broadband

250 open

BlueBird satellites with broadband directly to standard smartphones.

HawkEye 360 logo

HawkEye 360

RF geolocation from space

20 open

Satellites that detect and geolocate radio-frequency signals.

Loft Federal logo

Loft Federal

National security space missions

14 open

Mission autonomy, edge processing and secure mission execution for national security space.

Keep exploring

Next: the job itself, its pay, your first step

Picking a company is half the decision. Look up roles by discipline, set pay side by side across employers, or read up on a kind of space industry work before you send an application.

Browse by kind of work

See the roles behind these employers, kind of work by kind of work, each with its pay and who hires for it.

Explore roles →

Compare the pay

Current pay by employer and by discipline, with a calculator that estimates a figure for your own background.

Open the pay explorer →

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Short, plain guides to each kind of space industry work, who tends to do well in it and the first steps in.

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