Low Earth Orbit · 160–2,000 km

The next economy is 400 kilometres up.

Low Earth orbit has gone from a government frontier to the fastest-growing layer of the global economy. LEONOMY helps operators, investors, and builders find their place in it.

~10,400

Active sats in LEO

$613B

Space economy, 2024

$1.8T

Projected by 2035

The band

What low Earth orbit actually is

LEO is the shell of space from roughly 160 to 2,000 kilometres above the surface — close enough to reach cheaply and talk to instantly, far enough to see the whole planet. Almost everything commercial in space is being built here.

Low latency

Close enough to feel instant

At a few hundred kilometres, a signal round-trips in milliseconds — fast enough for live video, voice, and real-time data straight from orbit to an unmodified phone on the ground.

Cheap access

The least expensive door to space

Reusable rockets have collapsed the cost of reaching LEO. A single vehicle can now carry dozens of satellites per flight, turning launch into a routine, high-cadence service rather than a rare event.

Full coverage

A clear view of the whole planet

From this altitude, satellites sweep the entire surface in hours — powering broadband, imaging, navigation timing, and Earth observation that underpin trillions of dollars of activity on the ground.

The trajectory

Where the economy is going

The shift is structural, not speculative. Private companies — not agencies — now lead, and orbital connectivity is becoming as ordinary as the power grid.

2024

$613B

~2030

$1.0T

2035

$1.8T

70%LEO satellite constellations are projected to drive roughly seven in ten dollars of the market's growth through 2035.
78%The space economy is now majority-private — a historic inversion from its decades as a government-only domain.
100kActive satellites could climb from ~10,000 today toward 100,000 by 2030 as launch costs keep falling.
3.5×McKinsey and the World Economic Forum expect the sector to roughly triple, rivalling the global semiconductor industry.

LEONOMY

What we do

We're the layer between you and orbit — translating a fast-moving, technical frontier into clear decisions for the people building and funding it.

Orbital Intelligence

A live, plain-language read on every major operator, launch, and constellation in low Earth orbit — so you always know where the field stands. Our feed is built on it.

Mission Access

From payload to orbit: we match your hardware to the right launch provider, rideshare window, and orbital slot, then manage the path to a confirmed ride.

Capital & Strategy

Diligence, market sizing, and positioning for investors and operators entering the LEO economy — grounded in the same data we track every day.

See the LEO economy in real time.

The companies below are reshaping orbit right now. Here's exactly where they stand today.

Live in LEO

What's happening right now

A snapshot of the operators turning low Earth orbit into working infrastructure — launch, connectivity, and the build-out beyond.

Tracking feed · last updated 20 Jun 2026

Launch & Connectivity

SpaceX · Starlink

NASDAQ: SPACEX

OPERATIONAL · SCALING

SpaceX runs the largest constellation in history and the most active launch line on Earth. After a record-setting IPO in June 2026, it began flying Falcon 9 as a public company within days. Its next-generation Starship V3 flew its maiden mission in May and is built to loft ~150 tonnes to LEO — about ten times a Falcon 9 — clearing the way for the larger V3 Starlink satellites.

To ease orbital congestion, SpaceX is lowering roughly 4,400 Starlink satellites to ~480 km through 2026 so failed craft de-orbit faster.

~10,400

Satellites in orbit

150 t

Starship to LEO

~⅔

Of all active sats

Launch

Rocket Lab

NASDAQ: RKLB

OPERATIONAL · NEUTRON SOON

The world's second most active launch provider, Rocket Lab has flown 87 Electron missions and dominates dedicated small-satellite rides. Its medium-lift, partly reusable Neutron rocket is targeted for a debut in Q4 2026 — its entry into the larger constellation and national-security market.

In May it signed the largest launch contract in company history — a confidential bulk order of five Neutron and three Electron flights — pushing its backlog past $2.2 billion.

Electron launches

70+

Missions in backlog

$2.2B

Total backlog

Connectivity · Direct-to-Cell

AST SpaceMobile

NASDAQ: ASTS

DEPLOYING CONSTELLATION

AST is building a cell tower in space — satellites that beam broadband straight to an ordinary, unmodified phone. On 17 June 2026 a Falcon 9 placed BlueBirds 8, 9 and 10 into LEO: the largest commercial antenna arrays ever orbited, designed for near-200 Mbps service over AT&T and Verizon.

The company aims to deploy ~45 satellites in 2026 and counts roughly 60 mobile operators as partners, targeting the ~150 million Americans in weak-coverage areas.

~200

Mbps to phone

~45

Sats planned, 2026

~60

Carrier partners

Infrastructure · Lunar

Intuitive Machines

NASDAQ: LUNR

IM-3 IN PREP

Best known for landing on the Moon, Intuitive Machines is becoming a broad space-infrastructure company. Its third mission, IM-3, is being readied for a 2026 touchdown at the Reiner Gamma lunar swirl, carrying the first of a planned lunar data-relay network.

After acquiring Lanteris Space, it has helped deploy 300+ satellites, and its NASA contract base has grown toward $4.8 billion across landers, data services, and an orbital-transfer vehicle.

IM-3

Next Moon landing

$4.8B

NASA contract base

300+

Satellites deployed

Also on the radar

Amazon's Project Kuiper and two Chinese mega-constellations are each racing to field 10,000-plus satellites, while Blue Origin's New Glenn is opening a second heavy-lift path to orbit. The LEO build-out is no longer a one-company story — it's becoming a crowded, competitive marketplace.

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