DE Orbit Field Report
The State of Space Talent 2026
A field report on hiring, funding, and the widening talent gap across the global commercial space industry — built from direct research across 30+ countries and 250+ companies.
30+
Countries researched
250+
Companies contacted
$4B+
In single funding rounds tracked
Three findings that shaped this year's market
The headlines are below. The evidence, the numbers and the hiring implications are in the report.
- 01
Capital is moving faster than teams can grow
Funded programmes are stalling at the hiring stage, not the engineering stage.
- 02
Government money is now a direct hiring signal
Sovereign and defence budgets are the clearest predictor of the next headcount wave.
- 03
The talent bottleneck is global, not regional
The same twelve skill sets are contested in every launch, ISR and lunar market.
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