The year 2025 is expected to be a significant turning point for the deep space market – including the Moon, Mars, and even distant asteroids. A combination of technological revolutions, increasing commercial interest, and growth in both government and private funding is opening the door to a new era of manned and robotic missions beyond Earth’s orbit.
The space race is back – but this time, it’s not just a rivalry between superpowers like the United States and China.
It has also become a competitive arena for major corporations and influential private players like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos.
Beyond the industry’s current leaders, new companies are beginning to recognize the vast potential of space resources.
Ideas that once seemed like science fiction – such as mining the Moon for resources or establishing data centers beyond Earth – are moving closer to becoming technological realities.
For Israel, a country renowned for its ability to thrive in extreme environments, this presents a golden opportunity to claim a stake in this emerging market and lead technologically as the “Start-Up Nation” once again.
Key factors driving the shift in 2025
Several major factors make 2025 a pivotal year.
Donald Trump’s victory in the US elections and his inauguration speech, in which he expressed support for sending astronauts to Mars, has reinforced the strategic priority of space exploration.
At the same time, his close ally, Elon Musk, has been positioned in a highly influential role, which could impact space-related priorities.
Additionally, NASA has undergone leadership changes, with Jared Isaacman – a private astronaut and entrepreneur from the commercial sector – appointed as the new administrator.
Unlike his predecessors, he did not rise through the ranks of NASA but instead emerged from private industry.
This shift could push the space agency toward greater efficiency, a stronger commercial focus, and increased openness to partnerships with private entities.
The rise of private investment in space
Recent years have seen a significant rise in private investments in space, with institutional investors and even family offices recognizing the economic and scientific potential of space technologies.
In 2025, this trend is expected to intensify, particularly in the development of dual-value technologies – those that provide benefits both for future space missions and for immediate applications on Earth.
Examples of such technologies date back to the Apollo program, during which dozens of groundbreaking products developed for the first manned missions to the Moon led to innovations that are now found in nearly every household worldwide, such as email and wireless headsets – Neil Armstrong used a set to relay his iconic “One small step for man...” motto.
Governments and international organizations are increasingly focusing on technologies that enable prolonged human presence in space – while also having broad applicability in terrestrial markets.
These include local production of materials, tools, and food; water and energy recycling; and resource extraction and utilization.
New research and infrastructure will be tested in experimental missions, with a priority on collaborations between private companies and government space agencies.
A rapidly advancing era of space exploration
The world is moving at an accelerating pace into a new era of space exploration. In 2025, the players who successfully leverage these trends – connecting Earth’s needs with space’s opportunities – will shape the future of the industry.
Therefore, Israel must maintain its position at the forefront of this field – especially in light of the challenges of the past year and a half, and precisely because of them.
A unique Israeli innovation initiative
A prime example of this is the unique innovation program we have launched in honor of Israel Space Week, which is currently taking place.
This program is designed for start-ups developing technologies for terrestrial markets that can also be leveraged to address space-related challenges in energy, construction, mining, and robotics.
Each participating company will receive a $250,000 investment, contingent on meeting key milestones.
The program’s headquarters will be based in Mitzpe Ramon, Israel’s “Space City,” where an emerging ecosystem is being built for dual-value technological development.
This Zionist-driven initiative, backed by strong financial support, serves as a gateway for Israel to establish a dominant role in the emerging deep space market, while also enabling groundbreaking innovations that could benefit humanity here on Earth – such as addressing the climate crisis – and further solidify Israel’s global reputation as a Start-Up Nation – this time, all the way up and out into deep space.
The writer is the CEO of Creation-Space, a company that builds dual-value Earth-space ventures. He is a pioneering entrepreneur recognized on the Forbes’ 30Under30 list who previously conducted research on Martian geology at the Weizmann Institute of Science and NASA.