According to a recent report titled, “State of the Space Industrial Base 2020: A Time for Action to Sustain U.S. Economic and Military Leadership in Space,” $11 billion of private capital has been invested in commercial space technology companies In the last five years

The report is written by the Space Force, Defence Innovation Unit and Air Force Research Laboratory.

“The Space Force must leverage the technologies and approaches at the frontier of this commercial expansion,” it said. “By working with commercial partners, we will harness the best of both civil and government technology to further accelerate capabilities.”

The U.S. government needs to take a number of steps to economically stimulate the industry, including setting up a “space bonds” market and a Space Commodities Exchange that would execute $1 billion of Pentagon and NASA funding, the authors recommended.