The Risk Comes Before the Rocket
Space has become one of the most dynamic commercial sectors on the planet. Satellite operators, launch service providers, SpaceTech startups, ground segment operators, and the investors backing all of them face a risk profile unlike anything else in commercial insurance. The assets are enormous. The environments are unforgiving. And when something goes wrong – a launch failure, an in-orbit anomaly, a cyber intrusion into a ground control station – the consequences are often binary and irreversible.
SpaceTech insurance is not a standard commercial lines product. It’s a specialist market, dominated by Lloyd’s syndicates and a small number of dedicated company market carriers, where every policy is manuscript, every risk is individually underwritten, and the difference between adequate coverage and a catastrophic gap comes down to how well your broker understands both the technology and the market.
What Falls Under SpaceTech Insurance
The insurable SpaceTech universe has expanded well beyond traditional geostationary satellite operators. It now includes launch vehicle manufacturers and service providers, LEO mega-constellation operators, satellite bus and payload manufacturers, component and subsystem suppliers, ground segment and command-and-control operators, spaceport operators, in-orbit servicing and debris removal ventures, space tourism operators, and commercial space station developers.
Software-defined satellite platforms, space-based data analytics companies, and cislunar mission operators round out an increasingly complex risk population. Commercial enterprises now represent more than half of all space insurance demand globally.
Key Risks Across the SpaceTech Lifecycle
Development and Manufacturing
At this stage, risks are primarily physical and commercial: hardware damage during assembly, contamination in cleanroom environments, failure during qualification testing, and product liability toward customers.
A startup that has invested years of engineering into a unique satellite bus or payload is sitting on an asset worth tens to hundreds of millions of dollars – without adequate coverage, a single test failure can be company-ending.
Pre-Launch
The window between the manufacturer’s facility and ignition carries underappreciated risk. Transport, integration with the launch vehicle, fueling, and storage during launch delays all expose hardware worth hundreds of millions to loss. The Amos-6 explosion in 2016 – which destroyed a $200 million satellite during a pre-launch static fire test – wiped out two decades’ worth of pre-launch premium income in a single event.
Launch
Launch is the highest-probability catastrophic loss phase in the entire mission lifecycle. The historical failure rate across all vehicle types is approximately 5–7%, and a failure during ascent puts the entire insured value at risk within seconds. The market is small, concentrated, and priced accordingly.
In-Orbit Operations
Once on station, risks include mechanical and electrical component failure, debris collision – ESA now tracks over 36,500 objects larger than 10cm — solar weather events, and increasingly, cyber attack. SpaceX executed more than 100 collision avoidance maneuvers for its Starlink constellation in 2024 alone. A major geomagnetic storm cost the company up to 40 satellites in a single event in 2022.
Cyber and Technology Risk
The 2022 Viasat/KA-SAT attack – which took down 40,000-45,000 modems across Europe through a compromised ground control system – changed how the market thinks about space cyber risk. The space insurance market is still working out how to handle it consistently.
Insurance Solutions
The global space insurance market operates with approximately $500 million in available capacity per risk, concentrated among roughly two dozen specialist insurers.
Core products include pre-launch all-risks coverage, launch insurance from ignition through commissioning, annually renewable in-orbit policies, launch-plus-life combined programs, third-party liability, delay-in-launch coverage, and business interruption. D&O and cyber are increasingly integral components of any complete SpaceTech program.
Who Needs This and When
The insurance journey for a SpaceTech company tracks closely with its operational and funding milestones. D&O becomes relevant at the first institutional funding round. Pre-launch coverage should be in place before hardware leaves the manufacturer’s facility.
Launch insurance must be bound at least 30 days before the scheduled launch date. In-orbit coverage renews annually and is subject to health assessments by underwriters. For companies approaching an IPO or SPAC, multi-layer D&O towers are essential components of the deal structure.
How We Approach This
As specialist brokers in SpaceTech risks, we bring together technical understanding of the space mission lifecycle and direct access to the underwriters who cover it. We don’t adapt standard policies – we build tailored programs aligned to your operational phase, asset base, and business structure.
The space insurance market went through its worst loss year on record in 2023, resetting pricing and tightening capacity. Navigating that market effectively requires relationships, technical credibility, and experience presenting risks to underwriters who have a limited appetite for the unknown.
If SpaceTech insurance has become relevant to your business, we’d welcome the conversation.
