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Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture leads NASA’s list of Washington state contractors in a newly released analysis of NASA’s economic impact.
The analysis was released today as NASA released data showing the number of jobs and proceeds generated in each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia during the 2021 fiscal year. NASA said this is the first time it has drafted a state-specific fact sheet to complement its economic impact report.
“With the president’s fiscal 2024 budget announcement this week, NASA will continue to be the economic engine that supports high-paying American jobs, sustains American innovation, and strengthens America’s competitiveness in the 21st century,” NASA said. CEO Bill Nelson said in a news release. “Our impressive economic impact only scratches the surface of NASA’s influence around the world and demonstrates clearly that what is good for NASA is good for communities across the country. .”
Nationwide, NASA supported more than 339,600 jobs in fiscal year 2021 (the period from October 2020 to the end of September 2021) based on multipliers that account for direct and indirect economic impact. The space agency said its activities generated more than $71.2 billion in economic output during the fiscal year. accounts for $426.6 million.
NASA figures show that more than half of the funds raised for Washington state in fiscal year 2021 ($275.9 million, 431) went to Blue Origin, headquartered in Kent, Washington. increase. The fact sheet doesn’t provide details about the programs supported by its funding, but NASA provides: Blue Origin funds lunar lander development efforts, ballistics research projects, and other space research.
The Aerojet Rocketdyne operation in Redmond, Washington was second on NASA’s Washington state list with $15,744,742 in funding. Aerojet’s Redmond team builds thrusters for a wide range of NASA spacecraft, from the Artemis lunar program’s Orion capsule and his SLS rocket, to the Persevier Lance rover that landed on Mars in 2021.
Rounding out the Washington state top five was Everett-based MagniX, a NASA-backed demonstration of electric aeronautical technology ($5.43 million raised). Vancouver-based nLight Photonics ($1.03 million) provides high-power laser systems used by NASA. Seattle-based Northwest Research Associates ($772,491), which focuses on sensor systems.
Speaking of research, the University of Washington leads NASA’s list of educational funding for Washington state agencies, with $19.19 million in funding. Washington State University, Western Washington University, and Northwest Indian College also received educational funding from this institution.
While there were only 19 NASA federal jobs listed as being based in Washington, the state ranked 7th nationally in state-by-state procurements for fiscal 2021, supporting direct and indirect Ranked 10th in number of jobs.
NASA isn’t the only economic influencer on Washington’s space industry, said Stan Schul, founder of Alliance Velocity, a consulting firm for space and software companies based in Bellevue, Washington. increase. In an email to GeekWire, Shull pointed to satellite operations being installed in the Seattle area by SpaceX, Amazon and LeoStella, as well as privately funded work being done by companies such as Blue Origin and Spaceflight Inc.
“While NASA funding and several national security space contracts in Washington State have been valuable to the region, the region’s space ecosystem is largely homegrown and uniquely entrepreneurial. It has a spirit,” said Shull. “We do not have a major federal space or defense presence in places like Houston, Los Angeles, Colorado or Florida.”
Despite these shortcomings, the Seattle-area space economy fosters dozens of space companies, employs thousands of people, and generates billions of dollars in economic impact annually, Schul said. Stated.
“It also has an amazing range,” he added. “It covers the entire end-to-end space and satellite value chain, from component manufacturing to satellites, rockets, space infrastructure, space communications and data services. We may not be the largest space nation. However, our modest but mighty space ecosystem has the potential to become a global space powerhouse in the future.”
For comparison, California was the state with the most NASA funding in 2021 ($4.5 billion) and the state with the most jobs supported by NASA-related activities (66,236, including jobs created by indirect economic impact). include). The Golden State has three NASA centers: the Ames Research Center, the Armstrong Flight Research Center, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Maryland, home to NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, has the most NASA federal government jobs (3,128 versus 1,812 in California).
Details from GeekWire:
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