Who buys space in Europe

The contracts come from TED, the official journal for public procurement in the European Union, read through its public search API. I searched for space terms in seven languages and kept contract award notices published from January 2024, the electronic format that names the winning supplier. Notices that name no winner, or whose buyer is outside Europe, are left out. Each remaining notice was then read to decide whether the purchase itself concerns satellites, spacecraft, launch, ground infrastructure or data from space. A notice that only mentions a space organisation, or uses a space word in a name, is left out.

This is not the whole market. Intergovernmental organisations such as ESA buy through their own systems and appear only where they published on TED. Purchases below the EU publication thresholds, contracts in the United Kingdom, and notices from before 2024 are not included. A notice can name several winners, for example in a framework with several lots. Values are rounded for display and are often ceilings rather than amounts paid.

Coding used AI assistance under written rules, in two rounds, and a random sample was checked independently. Each contract in the lists links to its notice on TED. Corrections are welcome.

Source: van de Haar, H. (2026). Who buys space in Europe. The Demand Side. Data: TED, Publications Office of the European Union.