FORTUNE OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2021 105tracks the sector, $36.7 billion was
invested in space startups over the
past two decades—with a full 72% of
that pot doled out since 2015. This
recent uptick in private funding is
largely driven by venture capital firms
that are betting space is quite literally
the next big frontier.
It’s not just investors who are
increasingly looking toward the
heavens, though. The private space
industry has also blasted its way into
the public consciousness recently,
thanks to the high-flying theatrics—
and yes, incredible innovations—of a
trio of billionaires: Amazon founder
Jeff Bezos, Virgin Galactic’s Richard
Branson, and Elon Musk of SpaceX.
These men and their companies
are reshaping the way much of
the world thinks about the future
of space—and many people in the
industry say that’s an overall plus
for the sector. Their spectacular
launches are adding to the allure of
working in the field, and attracting
more interest from investors.
But the adventures of the flyboy
founders also cloud the reality of
what’s happening in the industry. All
three are emphasizing space tourism,
which, while exciting, represents just
a fraction of the innovation hap-
pening in the sector; the tourism
market accounts for $1.7 billion of
the $366 billion “space economy,” ac-
cording to BryceTech. What’s more,
the headline-grabbing prominence
of Bezos et al. means that the private
space sector is at risk of repeating
some of the missteps of our earlier,
public sector efforts, in which the es-sential contributions of women were
minimized or overlooked.
What’s at stake here? For starters,
there’s a huge economic opportunity:
Morgan Stanley projects that the
global space industry could gener-
ate more than $1 trillion by 2040,
more than three times current annual
estimates. And if women—not to
mention people of different ethnicities
and races and nationalities—aren’t
adequately represented in this
burgeoning field, then we are setting
ourselves up for yet another industry
with chronic inequality. This particu-
lar industry happens to matter a lot:
The prospects of actually being able
to explore and even thrive in space are
closer than ever. It may sound futuris-
tic, but that makes enlisting entrepre-
neurs from diverse backgrounds all
the more important. In pursuit of the
next frontier for humanity, shouldn’t
all humanity be represented?
Johnson is already hard at work
making sure the answer to that ques-
tion is an emphatic yes. She’s a build-
er—as are many of the women she’s
slowly but surely added over the years
to her now overflowing Rolodex—so
she’s not terribly concerned about be-
ing left out of the current structures
of power. “If you’re not a member of
the old boys’ club, you don’t have to
worry about being a member of the
old boys’ club,” she says.
In other words: You get to create
your own club. And that’s exactly
what the women powering the pri-
vate space industry are doing.MANY OF MY conversations
with Johnson begin with
her telling me what to do.
Specifically, who I “must”
talk to—a list that eventually grows
to include more than two dozen
women, from a Saudi entrepreneur
trying to launch her own rocket, to a
British founder using nanosatellites
to track weather patterns.
Johnson’s network is not only
extensive, but also global, stretch-0123456$7 BILLION2000 2005 2010 2015 2020INVESTMENTS IN STARTUP SPACE COMPANIESU.S. RECIPIENTS NON-U.S. RECIPIENTS$7.6 B.SOURCE OF INVESTMENTS IN STARTUP SPACE COMPANIESVENTURE
CAPITAL
64%SEED,
PRIZE
OR GRANT
15%ACQUISITION
13%PUBLIC
OFFERING
6%DEBT
FINANCING
2%SOURCE: BRYCETECH