Venture Capital Cash Fuels Thousands of Space Startup Dreams

Not every space specialist dreams of working at SpaceX or Blue Origin. Some want to become the next Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos.

Fueled by new business cases for space and growing amounts of venture capital cash, space startups have proliferated. In the past decade, 1,779 firms worldwide have received investments of $286 billion from private equity, according to data from Space Capital.

Investors are still coming despite some notable space venture failures. Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit sold its remaining assets last year after filing for Chapter 11, and shares of Virgin Galactic recently fell below $1 ...