Switzerland is an important supplier of high-precision technologies, instruments and components for international missions and a founding member of the European Space Agency. Its strengths lie in space science, precision engineering, atomic clocks, launcher structures and scientific payloads, with commercial Swiss technologies used in programmes such as Galileo, Ariane and Vega.
The Space Economy at a Glance 2026
The country combines strong academic capabilities with a specialised industrial base and start-up ecosystem, supported since 2016 by ESA BIC Switzerland, operated by the technical university ETH in Zurich. Orbital activity is mainly commercial or academic. Switzerland’s first satellite, SwissCube-1, was developed by the Lausanne technical university EPFL with students and partners and launched in 2009 to study atmospheric airglow. In June 2026, Switzerland ranked 25th globally for satellite ownership and 22nd for satellites launched since 2019.
In constant CHF and USD million, base year 2015
Note: The budget includes national complementary activities, contributions to the European Space Agency, to Eumetsat and to the Galileo/EGNOS programme.
Source: OECD analysis based on institutional sources.
In 2025, Switzerland’s government space budget reached USD 334 million (CHF 278.4 million), representing 0.032% of GDP (Figure 5.27). This is a slight decrease compared with 2020-24, but higher than 2019 levels. The budget is dominated by contributions to the European Space Agency, with connectivity and secure communications and earth observation as the two main optional programmes.
Swiss space industry has traditionally focused on space manufacturing (e.g. fairings and atomic clocks), but several satellite operators have emerged since 2010, often relying on in-house manufacturing of miniaturised satellites. Applications include for example internet-of-things and orbital debris removal. The Swiss company ClearSpace will lead the European Clearspace-1 mission scheduled for 2028, removing a satellite from orbit.
IP5 patent families, by priority date and applicant's location, using fractional counts
Note: IP5 patent families correspond to patent families filed in at least two offices worldwide, including at least one of the Five IP largest offices (IP5, i.e. the European Patent Office, EPO; the Japan Patent Office, JPO; the Korean Intellectual Property Office, KIPO; The China National Intellectual Property Administration, CNIPA; and the US Patent and Trademark Office, USPTO). Patents related to space-related technologies have been identified by the EPO using the EPO-PATSTAT 2025b data (https://www.epo.org/patstat).
Source: OECD, STI Micro-data Lab: Intellectual Property Database, http://oe.cd/ipstats, June 2026.
Switzerland accounted for 0.7% of global space-related patent applications in the 2020-23 period (Figure 5.28), which is a small increase compared to 2010-13. Its share in space-related patenting is lower than its global share, giving it a negative revealed technological advantage (RTA). Switzerland’s space-related RTA has decreased since 2010-13.
In terms of space-related scientific production and excellence, Switzerland’s space literature (measured in fractional counts) has increased since 2009, while its high share of internationally co-authored papers has remained stable and high (Figure 5.29). Its production per 100 000 inhabitants is twice the OECD average. When looking at citations, a common proxy for scientific excellence, 15.5% of Switzerland’s space literature was in the top-10 percentile for citations in 2024. This is above the OECD average of 12%. Switzerland’s normalised citation score, comparing citation patterns within specific scientific fields, is above the world average in the All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) categories “earth and planetary sciences”, and “physics and astronomy”.
Fractional counts
Note: Perimeter of documents based on filtered journal titles and All Science Journal Classification codes in the Scopus database.
Source: OECD calculations based on Scopus Custom Data, Elsevier, Version 1.2026, April 2026.
Based on data in the OECD Development Assistance Committee Creditor Reporting System database, Switzerland committed some 4.4 million constant US dollars in space-related official development assistance over the 2010-23 period, mainly targeting the development of agriculture (Figure 5.30).
In constant USD million (base year=2023)
Source: Calculations based on OECD (2025[1])), “Creditor Reporting System (CRS)", OECD.stat (database), https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=CRS1 (accessed July 2025).
References
[3] McDowell, J. (2026), Jonathan’s Space Report, https://www.planet4589.org/index.html (accessed on 23 June 2026).
[2] OECD (2026), STI Micro-data Lab: Intellectual Property Database, http://oe.cd/ipstats (accessed on June 2026).
[1] OECD (2025), Creditor Reporting System (CRS), database, https://data-explorer.oecd.rg.