Accounting for the New Space Economy

Abstract The new space economy (NSE) requires adaptive accounting expertise to support effective expansion. Despite its infancy as a formal discipline, space accounting is crucial in helping NSE stakeholders capture, record, and analyze financial and non-financial information for effective strategic decision-making in space. Using an adapted Zoom framework, this chapter explores current issues in space accounting from the scholastic and practitioner perspectives, including sustainability, investments, management control, and launch costing. It also addresses future challenges like space mining taxation and sustainability accountability frameworks. To effectively transition the extant space accounting discipline towards achieving future NSE goals, the chapter concludes by proposing three pathways that involve advances in (1) codifying space accounting information, (2) developing space performance measurements, and (3) enhancing cost analyses for space infrastructure and activities.