Orbital Leverage Points: The Infrastructure Layers That Will Control the Space Economy
Orbital leverage points or orbital choke points are the small number of shared infrastructure layers in space - mobility, servicing, power, communications, assembly and computing - that most other space missions depend on to operate.
Because so many satellites, constellations and space stations will need to plug into them, the organisations that own these layers stand to gain influence over the wider space economy that is disproportionate to their size. As the space economy scales towards the trillion-dollar mark, this concept is becoming one of the more useful ways to think about where durable competitive advantage will actually sit - not in the spacecraft themselves, but in the infrastructure everyone else is forced to rely on.
The space economy is scaling faster than most strategies account for
The size of the projected space economy varies depending on where you draw the boundary between "space" and "space-enabled" activity, but the direction of travel is consistent. The space economy is projected to surpass $1 trillion by 2040 (in a optimistic scenario it would be closer to 2033). The US will continue to be the largest country, followed by countries such as China and Japan, while India is set to increase its share from ~ 2-3% to 10% by 2040.
However, none of this growth is evenly distributed, though. It's concentrating around a handful of activities that sit "underneath" the visible parts of the space economy - the satellites, constellations and exploration missions that get the headlines.
Why the biggest winners won't be the companies building the best spacecraft
As the growth unfolds, a new class of infrastructure giants will emerge. The biggest winners won't necessarily be the companies building most advanced spacecrafts or the EO companies. They will be the ones that control the infrastructure layers (or the "orbital leverage points") that everyone else depends on to operate in space.
The logic behind orbital leverage points - a small set of chokepoints that a large share of the orbital economy will need to pass through, regardless of which specific companies or countries are operating the spacecraft on top of them. Control of a chokepoint tends to be worth more, over a long time horizon, than being one of many competitors building the assets that sit on top of it - a pattern that has played out in adjacent infrastructure-heavy industries from telecoms to cloud computing to global shipping.
The five orbital leverage points
Based on where funding, technology demonstrations and regulatory attention are currently concentrated, five layers stand out as the emerging chokepoints of the orbital economy -
1. Orbital mobility
As orbital congestion and asset density increase, spacecraft that can reposition themselves, rendezvous with other assets, and transport payloads or other satellites will function as the logistics backbone of the orbital economy - the equivalent of freight and haulage in a terrestrial supply chain. Mobility underpins almost everything else on this list: you cannot service, refuel, assemble or reposition an asset without first being able to manoeuvre to it reliably and repeatedly.
2. In-orbit servicing, debris removal and space situational awareness (SSA)
Refuelling, inspection, repair, life extension and debris removal are moving from one-off demonstration missions towards recurring, contracted services, as the volume and value of in-orbit assets grows. Alongside this, space situational awareness tracking and characterising objects in orbit to avoid collisions - is shifting from a niche government capability to something close to a baseline requirement for any serious commercial operator, simply because the orbital environment is becoming more crowded and more valuable to protect.
3. Power and communications
As more assets operate in orbit, reliable, shared access to power and communications infrastructure becomes mission-critical rather than a nice-to-have. This spans everything from inter-satellite optical links and relay constellations to the earlier-stage concept of shared or transferable power in orbit. Operators that don't want to build and launch their own dedicated comms and power infrastructure for every mission will increasingly buy it as a service from specialists.
4. Assembly and manufacturing
Large structures - from bigger communications platforms to future space stations and in-orbit factories - will need to be built and assembled directly in orbit rather than launched fully formed, simply because there are physical limits to how much can be lifted in one piece. The companies that solve in-orbit assembly and manufacturing at scale will occupy an entirely new position in the value chain: not a supplier to the space economy, but a piece of its permanent industrial base.
5. Orbital computing and data (the secondary leverage point)
Orbital computing and data processing is, for now, a secondary chokepoint rather than a primary one - the barriers to entry are meaningfully lower than the other four, and a wider range of companies can plausibly compete. That said, as data processing shifts closer to the point of capture (edge computing applied to orbit, rather than beaming raw data back to Earth for processing), in-orbit computing and storage is likely to harden into a strategic layer in its own right, rather than remaining a support function bolted onto satellites built for other purposes.
How mature is each leverage point today? A maturity lens for investors and operators
Not all five leverage points are at the same stage of development, and that gap matters strategically. A layer that is still in early demonstration behaves very differently in terms of risk, capital intensity, competitive intensity and time-to-payoff than one that is already generating recurring commercial revenue.
We assess the relative maturity of each leverage point below, on a simple four-stage scale: Nascent → Emerging → Scaling → Maturing.
Orbital mobility -
Emerging. Rendezvous-and-proximity-ops tech is proven, but repeatable, on-demand mobility-as-a-service is still rare. Next-stage signal: a provider landing multiple non-exclusive commercial customers across different orbits in one year.
In-orbit servicing, debris removal & SSA -
Emerging to Scaling. Life-extension servicing is commercially proven; debris removal is still mostly demonstration missions; SSA-as-a-service is maturing fastest. Next-stage signal: debris removal moving to standing, multi-object commercial contracts.
Power and communications -
Nascent to Emerging. Optical inter-satellite links are advancing quickly; shared in-orbit power is still R&D. Next-stage signal: a commercial power-transfer demo between two independently owned spacecraft.
Assembly and manufacturing -
Nascent. Mostly R&D and small-scale demos. Next-stage signal: the first commercially contracted, non-government in-orbit assembly of a structure larger than a single fairing.
Orbital computing and data -
Nascent to Emerging. Edge-computing payloads are flying, but the field is fragmented with no dominant player. Next-stage signal: consolidation around a small number of default computing-layer providers.
The pattern worth watching - the earlier a leverage point is on this curve, the more the current competitive landscape resembles the pre-consolidation phase of other infrastructure markets - more entrants, more experimentation, and more opportunity to establish a defensible position before a small number of winners emerge.
Assembly and manufacturing, and orbital computing, are the two layers where that window is currently most open. Servicing and mobility are moving faster towards a phase where early movers start to compound their advantage through existing customer relationships, flight heritage and regulatory trust - all of which are hard for a later entrant to replicate quickly.
Capital is already pricing in the infrastructure thesis
Investment activity through 2026 supports the view that capital markets are beginning to move ahead of the broader narrative. In August 2026, India's InspeCity raised INR 100 crore for in-space servicing - a notable data point for a market where India's own share of global space activity is still in the single digits but growing quickly. Globally, Starfish Space raised approximately $110 million for satellite servicing, taking its total funding above $150 million; Katalyst Space raised $12 million for robotic servicing; and Orbit Fab secured $20 million for in-space refuelling infrastructure. Other companies that have recently attracted funding in adjacent parts of the stack include Aule Space, Infinite Orbits and ThinkOrbital.
What this means in practice
For investors and corporate development teams, the leverage-point framework is a useful filter for where to look for asymmetric returns. Rather than evaluating every spacecraft manufacturer or EO company on its own merits, it's worth asking which of the five layers a target company actually sits on, how mature that layer is, and whether the company's current customer base gives it a credible route to becoming infrastructure rather than remaining a vendor.
For space companies themselves, the strategic question shifts from "how do we build a better satellite" to "which layer do we want to become indispensable to, and how do we get there before the market consolidates." Companies sitting in nascent layers - assembly, manufacturing, orbital computing - have more room to define the category on their own terms, but also carry more technology and adoption risk. Companies in more mature layers - mobility, servicing - face a narrower but clearer window to lock in flight heritage and long-term contracts before a smaller number of dominant providers emerge.
For policymakers and national space agencies, particularly in fast-growing markets like India, the framework suggests that industrial policy aimed at capturing a larger share of the global space economy may get more leverage from supporting infrastructure-layer capabilities - servicing, SSA, in-orbit logistics - than from spreading support evenly across every part of the value chain. Given how central SSA and debris management already are to sustainable orbital operations, this is also where regulatory and safety policy is likely to concentrate first.
The strategic question going forward
As the orbital economy becomes more interconnected, the question worth asking is no longer just "who builds the most advanced spacecraft" or "who captures the most Earth observation data." It's: who controls the infrastructure that the rest of the orbital economy cannot operate without?
The eventual winners may emerge from mobility, servicing, communications, manufacturing, computing, or logistics - the exact category matters less than the position. The companies that matter most, five to ten years from now, will be the ones that turned an orbital leverage point into infrastructure that everyone else has to build around.
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Frequently asked questions
What are orbital leverage points? Orbital leverage points are the infrastructure layers in space - such as mobility, servicing, power, communications, assembly and computing - that a large share of other space missions depend on to operate. Controlling one of these layers can give a company outsized influence over the wider space economy.
Which companies control key space infrastructure today? No single company yet dominates any of the five leverage points identified here. The current landscape includes early movers such as Starfish Space, Katalyst Space, Orbit Fab, InspeCity, Aule Space, Infinite Orbits and ThinkOrbital, alongside established aerospace primes extending into servicing and mobility. The market remains fragmented, which is part of why the current period is strategically significant.
Is in-orbit servicing a growing market? Yes. Our estimate is that the in-orbit / on-orbit servicing market to grow at a double-digit compound annual growth rate through the early-to-mid 2030s, driven by an ageing base of satellites, rising orbital congestion, and growing demand for debris removal and life-extension services.
How big is the space economy expected to become? Estimates vary by methodology and scope, but conservative estimates put it at slightly over $1 trillion by 2040, while optimistic estimates pulls the $1 trillion milestone forward to 2033.
What share of the global space economy does India currently have, and where is it heading? India's share of the global space economy is currently estimated at roughly 2–3%. Strong growth is expected to lead to India capturing ~10% of the global space economy by 2040.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————Strategy&Blue works with space and deep-tech organisations, investors and public sector bodies to identify where structural advantage is forming in emerging technology markets, and to build strategies around it before it becomes consensus. Get in touch to discuss how the orbital leverage point framework applies to your roadmap - let's talk.