Musk's SpaceX considers Irish office, report suggests

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Pic: AP Photo/Terry Renna

SpaceX is set to open an office in Dublin in what would mark the first physical presence of the Elon Musk-founded space company in Europe, the Sunday Times reported.

The move comes as the US technology business looks to expand sales of its Starlink satellite broadband service across the region, the newspaper said.

The Sunday Times, citing a person it didn’t identify, said the decision to open in Ireland followed the global growth of the Starlink service and that the company would be looking to set up a finance team there.

SpaceX didn’t respond to a request for comment from the newspaper.

The global space economy grew 8% to $546bn in 2022 and is projected to climb another 41% over the next five years, according to a leading space nonprofit.

The sector is expected to show resiliency in the coming years, despite uncertainty about the global economy and a recent slowdown in space investment.

Meanwhile, commercial revenue grew hand-in-hand with a surge in orbital launches. A total of 186 launches were attempted in 2022, up from 145 the previous year, the Space Foundation said. Commercial launches accounted for 81 of those, 50 of which were conducted by Mr Musk’s industry-leading SpaceX.

The US dominated civil and defence spending in space, comprising nearly 60% of total spending. China followed in second place, accounting for 14%, according to the Space Foundation’s analysis, which relied on a GDP calculation that estimated the country’s spending on space. 

The European Space Agency ranked third with 5% of the total. While those three have been top players for a while, more countries are contributing to overall space spending than in the past.

• Bloomberg