Space Exploration Technologies Corp., or SpaceX, is due to launch the first manned mission from U.S. soil since the end of NASA's Shuttle program. The May 27 launch to the International Space Station follows a yearslong process to establish launch capabilities as part of the company's longer-term space exploration plans. The availability of launch capacity by SpaceX and United Launch Alliance LLC, among others, has greatly reduced the need to send satellites and other space systems to other countries for launch. 

Panjiva's data shows that U.S. space exports fell 76.4% to $640 million in 2019 compared to their peak in 2017. Exports are dominated by communications satellites, which were worth $619 million in 2019 and were equivalent to 97.9% of exports over the past 10 years.

Like any industrial manufacturing business, SpaceX has a wide range of import requirements including heavy components. Panjiva's U.S. seaborne import data shows there has been a three-fold year-over-year increase in shipments linked to the company in the three months to April 30. 

Leading suppliers in the past two years have included aluminum components suppliers Constellium SE and Berkshire Hathaway Inc.'s Western Specialty Alloys, fuel and handling systems from Airbus SE's ArianeSpace and tooling equipment from Kobe Steel Ltd.'s Quintus AB and MK Technology.

Christopher Rogers is a senior researcher at Panjiva, which is a business line of S&P Global Market Intelligence, a division of S&P Global Inc. This content does not constitute investment advice, and the views and opinions expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of S&P Global Market Intelligence. Links are current at the time of publication. S&P Global Market Intelligence is not responsible if those links are unavailable later.