Global space spending up 11 percent to $251 billion

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado (Reuters) - Revenues from worldwide government and private spending on space projects rose to $251 billion last year, up 11 percent from 2006 despite slowing growth in many countries, an analysis released on Tuesday said.

More than half of global space economic activity stemmed from purchases of commercial satellite-based products and services. Another 25 percent came from U.S. government spending, according to The Space Report 2008 released by the Space Foundation, a Colorado Springs, Colorado, nonprofit advocacy group.

Activity in two commercial satellite services, television and the U.S.-funded Global Positioning System navigation tool, expanded the quickest, the 116-page report said.

"All sectors of space continue to grow despite economic woes in many countries," said Marty Hauser, who heads research and analysis for the group. "The space economy appears to be poised for steady growth in coming years."

The United States accounted for 81 percent of global government space spending, said the report, citing "available information."

Combined U.S. defense-related spending totaled $45 billion, or 71 percent of U.S. government space spending.

No comparable figure was given for China, which stirred international concerns by using a ground-based missile to shoot apart one of its satellites in January 2007 without alerting other nations of its test.

China's civilian space spending may have totaled $1.5 billion in 2007, the Space Foundation said, calling this a conservative estimate. By contrast, NASA, the U.S. civilian space agency, received $17.3 billion for fiscal 2008, the report showed.

Russian space spending rose 49 percent to $1.32 billion in 2007 from a year earlier, driven largely by increased investment in Russia's GLONASS global navigation satellite system, the analysis said.