An annual report from Space Angels, which unlike Seraphim does not include drone startups in its count, tallied $2.97 billion in space startup equity investments last year. Space Angels said 2018’s total counts for a sixth of all the equity capital invested in space companies since 2009.
Space Angels pronounced 2018 the “Year of Small Launch,” thanks to Rocket Lab completing its first three orbital launches while competitors made significant progress toward their own debuts. It expects 2019 to be the “Year of Commercial Space Travel” with Boeing and SpaceX expected to conduct commercial crew test flights for NASA this year while both Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic expect to fly their first passengers to suborbital space.