Europe's new space industry generated around €78 billion.
The €78 billion figure is confirmed against the European Space Agency's Report on the Space Economy 2025 — Europe's share of the global downstream space economy in 2024 (satellite communications, Earth observation, GNSS services). Borg's order-of-magnitude framing of the European space industry's scale is supported by the primary source. The 'new space' label as the industry typically uses it refers to a subset of the upstream commercial space segment, but the €78bn figure Borg cites is documentary fact at the broader European space-economy level.
The €78 billion figure is confirmed against the European Space Agency's Report on the Space Economy 2025 — Europe's share of the global downstream space economy in 2024 (satellite communications, Earth observation, GNSS services). Borg's order-of-magnitude framing of the European space industry's scale is supported by the primary source. The 'new space' label as the industry typically uses it refers to a subset of the upstream commercial space segment, but the €78bn figure Borg cites is documentary fact at the broader European space-economy level.
We tested Borg's claim against ESA's Report on the Space Economy 2025, Eurospace's 2025 facts-and-figures release, and the European Commission's Vision for the European Space Economy. The methodological question is whether €78 billion is verifiable for Europe's space industry and whether the 'new space' label Borg uses matches the segment that actually generates that number.
Verdict lands at True because the €78 billion figure aligns with ESA's accounting of Europe's downstream space-economy share in 2024 (satellite communications, Earth observation, GNSS services), even though 'new space' as the industry typically uses it refers to a narrower upstream startup segment worth closer to €8.8bn in 2024 sales. The deep-dive lays out the downstream-versus-upstream split, Europe's roughly 19% share of the global downstream segment, and the EC Vision framework Malta would route through; this editorial note is methodology only.
Did Europe's new space industry really generate €78 billion
The €78 billion figure is real and recent — it comes from the European Space Agency's Report on the Space Economy 2025. But it refers specifically to Europe's downstream space economy share (satellite communications, Earth observation, GNSS services) in 2024, not to "new space" as the term is usually used in industry. The figure checks out; the label needs unpacking.
What €78 billion actually measures
The ESA Report on the Space Economy 2025 splits the European space economy into segments:
- Downstream space economy — €78 billion (2024). Europe's share of global downstream — satellite communications, Earth observation, GNSS services. Growing roughly 6% per year. Over 90% commercial. This is what end-users pay for space-derived services. Europe holds roughly a 19% share of the global downstream segment.
- Upstream / manufacturing — €8.8 billion (2024). European space industry's annual sales, per Eurospace's 2025 facts-and-figures release. Limited annual growth (~€300M). Roughly 66,000 FTE employees, with employment growth driven by New Space start-ups.
- "New space" specifically. The narrower term — private-sector commercial space startups challenging traditional state-led programmes — is a subset of the upstream manufacturing segment. Smaller than the broader €78bn downstream figure Borg cited.
So €78bn ≈ downstream Europe; ~€8.8bn ≈ upstream manufacturing; "new space" is a subset of the latter. Borg pairs the bigger downstream figure with the narrower-label "new space" — the number is right, the label is imprecise.
What this means for the Malta framing
Borg's broader argument — that Europe's space economy is substantial and Malta has limited exposure to it — survives regardless of which segment you look at. Malta's economic profile is geared toward services, digital sectors and financial services; its share of either upstream manufacturing or downstream satellite-services revenue is marginal.
The European Commission's June 2025 Vision for the European Space Economy is an open framework inviting member states to position themselves. Malta's NewSpace sectoral framework — launched as part of the PN 2026 policy programme alongside AI and data — would be the route to engage. Whether Malta has the scale and infrastructure to capture meaningful share is a separate policy question outside this fact-check.
So is the claim accurate?
Yes. The €78 billion figure is documentary fact, verifiable directly against the ESA Report on the Space Economy 2025. Europe's downstream space economy generated approximately €78 billion in 2024, growing roughly 6% year-on-year. Borg's order-of-magnitude framing of the European space industry's scale is supported by the primary source.
Verdict: True.