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Live ranking

The best space industry employers, ranked

Each scored on what applying there is worth, plus a boost for the ones that pay us a referral fee. Then every employer we track. Compare pay across every employer, see the highest-paying employers, or browse by kind of work.

Live roles updated 29 Oct 2026, 13:01 UTCPay is labeled by how we know it. Data last refreshed 29 Oct 2026.

The 41 best space industry employers right now

Ranked on one score: what applying is worth. For each of the 41 employers hiring on its job board today, the chance of being hired (from the people who applied there: who was hired, and who is still likely to be) times what its roles typically pay (from the rates its board states). An employer with little data of its own leans on the average of every employer, in proportion to how little it has. The score is that worth an hour times one plus a referral boost: from 20% to 100% more for an employer that pays us a referral fee when you join through our links, by what a visit there is worth to us, and nothing for the rest. Open a score to see every part of it, or compare all 41 on every figure.

  1. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $156k/yr
    Worth an hour
    n/a
  2. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $154k/yr
    Worth an hour
    n/a
  3. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $138k/yr
    Worth an hour
    n/a
  4. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $101k/yr
    Worth an hour
    n/a
  5. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $141k/yr
    Worth an hour
    n/a
  6. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $141k/yr
    Worth an hour
    n/a
  7. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $144k/yr
    Worth an hour
    n/a
  8. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $141k/yr
    Worth an hour
    n/a
  9. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $141k/yr
    Worth an hour
    n/a
  10. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $148k/yr
    Worth an hour
    n/a
  11. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $141k/yr
    Worth an hour
    n/a
  12. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $132k/yr
    Worth an hour
    n/a
  13. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $181k/yr
    Worth an hour
    n/a
  14. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $141k/yr
    Worth an hour
    n/a
  15. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $160k/yr
    Worth an hour
    n/a
  16. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $141k/yr
    Worth an hour
    n/a
  17. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $154k/yr
    Worth an hour
    n/a
  18. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $141k/yr
    Worth an hour
    n/a
  19. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $132k/yr
    Worth an hour
    n/a
  20. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $153k/yr
    Worth an hour
    n/a
  21. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $164k/yr
    Worth an hour
    n/a
  22. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $198k/yr
    Worth an hour
    n/a
  23. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $144k/yr
    Worth an hour
    n/a
  24. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $176k/yr
    Worth an hour
    n/a
  25. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $138k/yr
    Worth an hour
    n/a
  26. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $152k/yr
    Worth an hour
    n/a
  27. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $117k/yr
    Worth an hour
    n/a
  28. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $113k/yr
    Worth an hour
    n/a
  29. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $147k/yr
    Worth an hour
    n/a
  30. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $138k/yr
    Worth an hour
    n/a
  31. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $138k/yr
    Worth an hour
    n/a
  32. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $141k/yr
    Worth an hour
    n/a
  33. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $150k/yr
    Worth an hour
    n/a
  34. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $141k/yr
    Worth an hour
    n/a
  35. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $141k/yr
    Worth an hour
    n/a
  36. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $174k/yr
    Worth an hour
    n/a
  37. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $119k/yr
    Worth an hour
    n/a
  38. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $155k/yr
    Worth an hour
    n/a
  39. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $114k/yr
    Worth an hour
    n/a
  40. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $132k/yr
    Worth an hour
    n/a
  41. Chance accepted
    n/a
    Expected pay
    $157k/yr
    Worth an hour
    n/a

For an employer that pays us a referral fee, the chance is read from the people its own referral list shows us, step by step from application to hired; for any other, from the people who told us how far they got there. Someone still in progress counts as their chance of being hired yet, which falls the longer they have waited. Typical pay is read from the same rates as every pay figure on the site, and a role that states no rate counts 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

118 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.

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

2,269 open

Designs, manufactures and launches advanced rockets and spacecraft.

Ursa Major logo

Ursa Major

Rocket propulsion

119 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

486 open

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

Spacecraft & stations

Muon Space logo

Muon Space

Satellite constellations

140 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

127 open

Mass-manufacturing productized satellite platforms.

Axiom Space logo

Axiom Space

Space stations and spacesuits

119 open

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

True Anomaly logo

True Anomaly

Space security

201 open

Spacecraft and software for space security.

Starfish Space logo

Starfish Space

Satellite servicing

12 open

Satellite servicing spacecraft that dock with satellites in orbit.

Voyager Technologies logo

Voyager Technologies

Space stations and defense

161 open

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

Vast logo

Vast

Space stations

177 open

Developing next-generation space stations and space infrastructure.

Astranis logo

Astranis

Satellite manufacturer and operator

183 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.

Loft Orbital logo

Loft Orbital

Space infrastructure as a service

58 open

Space infrastructure that lets any organization fly a mission.

Quindar logo

Quindar

Mission operations software

18 open

Software for operating satellites and space missions.

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.

Northwood Space logo

Northwood Space

Ground stations

57 open

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

BlackSky logo

BlackSky

Earth observation

37 open

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

Astroscale logo

Astroscale

On-orbit servicing

44 open

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

ICEYE logo

ICEYE

Radar imaging satellites

176 open

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

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

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

249 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

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