The monthly analysis, June 2026
Where the money went, June 2026
USAspending contract awards in four space-relevant NAICS codes: space vehicles, propulsion, space vehicle parts, and space research and technology. Four codes of federal contract data, a narrow slice of the space economy. Agencies report awards one to four months late, so the month analyzed is the most recent one whose count has stabilized, and late rows can still arrive and move these totals.
Parts work led on count, missile manufacturing led on money
The packet flags one divergence, and it sits in the project kinds. Guided Missile and Space Vehicle Manufacturing led by value at $75.7M across 19 awards. Other Guided Missile and Space Vehicle Parts and Auxiliary Equipment Manufacturing led by count at 26 awards, worth $38.5M. Propulsion unit and propulsion unit parts manufacturing sits between them at $59.9M across 18 awards, almost all of which is the single Centaur line.
The parts category is where most of the activity was in June, and it held the smaller checks: the Sielman S.A. award of $3.5M for analog to digital conversion of four Spain Hawk missile launchers, the Teledyne Flir Defense, Llc delivery order at $3.1M, a $2.4M Lockheed Martin Corporation award for the Navy in Pennsylvania. A reader who ranks only by dollars would see the missile manufacturing category and miss where the award count actually was.
NASA placed 3 awards worth $61.4M, DoD placed 60
The Department of Defense accounted for $112.7M across 60 awards, 65% of the month. NASA accounted for $61.4M across 3 awards, 35%. Within Defense, the Missile Defense Agency shows a single award of $48.0M, the Department of the Army shows $31.1M over 3 awards, and the Department of the Navy shows $25.8M over 11 awards. The Navy is the busiest sub-agency in the packet by count, and its work includes a $17.7M Raytheon Company award described only as the third annual delivery order, plus repairs and software items in the low millions.
Raytheon Company holds 40% of the month's dollars over 9 awards. Rtx Corporation appears separately in the packet with 7 awards totaling $5.3M, matching Connecticut's 8 awards and $5.3M closely enough to be worth noting as a distinct line in the data.
This is contract award data in four NAICS codes, a narrow cut of the space economy, and agencies report one to four months late. The June count had stabilized before we looked at it, though late rows can still arrive and shift these figures.
The month in figures
By state, where the work is performed
Place of performance, not company headquarters.
By industry code
The largest awards
| Recipient | Amount | Awarding office | State | Signed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Launch Services, Llc | $59.5M | National Aeronautics and Space Administration | CO | Jun 18, 2026 |
| Raytheon Company | $48.0M | Missile Defense Agency | AZ | Jun 18, 2026 |
| Lockheed Martin Corporation | $27.3M | Department of the Army | TX | Jun 1, 2026 |
| Raytheon Company | $17.7M | Department of the Navy | AZ | Jun 4, 2026 |
| Sielman S.A. | $3.5M | Department of the Army | Jun 15, 2026 | |
| Teledyne Flir Defense, Llc | $3.1M | Department of the Navy | OK | Jun 8, 2026 |
| Lockheed Martin Corporation | $2.4M | Department of the Navy | PA | Jun 3, 2026 |
| Raytheon Company | $1.6M | Department of the Navy | AZ | Jun 15, 2026 |
| Raytheon Company | $1.5M | Defense Contract Management Agency | AZ | Jun 2, 2026 |
| Lanteris Space Llc | $1.5M | National Aeronautics and Space Administration | CA | Jun 12, 2026 |
Each amount links to the award's own record at USAspending.
Hiring, read alongside the money
Engineering & science leads by volume with 3,333 of the 6,143 job listings, or 54.3 percent. Over the 35 days from August 18, 2026 to September 22, 2026, Internships & co-ops gained share fastest, up 1.5 points to 3.0 percent on a count that went from 75 to 182. Engineering & science gave up the most share in the same span, down 1.2 points.
| Discipline | Listings now | On Aug 18, 2026 | Share | Share change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Engineering & science | 3,333 | 2,867 | 54.3% | -1.2 pts |
| Business & administrative | 1,272 | 1,109 | 20.7% | -0.7 pts |
| Skilled trades & production | 929 | 782 | 15.1% | -0.0 pts |
| Other | 417 | 329 | 6.8% | 0.4 pts |
| Internships & co-ops | 182 | 75 | 3.0% | 1.5 pts |
| Mission & flight operations | 10 | 7 | 0.2% | 0.0 pts |
Live listings on the employers' own boards, counted daily by this site; a 35-day window that differs from the award month above. Hiring and award reporting run on different clocks, so treat side-by-side reads as context rather than cause.
Earlier months
- May 2026: $566.2M across 75 awards. Federal contract awards in four space-relevant NAICS codes totaled $566.2M across 75 awards in May 2026, with five awards holding most of the money.
- April 2026: $5.9B across 92 awards. April 2026 recorded 92 contract awards worth $5.9B in four space-relevant NAICS codes, with a single Lockheed Martin PAC-3 production award accounting for 81% of the total.
- March 2026: $244.9M across 104 awards. March 2026 brought 104 contract awards worth $244.9M across four space-relevant NAICS codes, with a single Northrop Grumman target vehicle award accounting for 52% of the total.
- February 2026: $17.7M across 59 awards. February 2026 recorded 59 federal contract awards worth $17.7M across four space-relevant NAICS codes, and two NASA awards accounted for most of that total.
The figures on this page are computed deterministically from the records they cite. The written themes are drafted by claude-opus-5 from those figures and nothing else, then checked: any paragraph containing a number or name the figures do not hold is dropped rather than repaired.