Report: Satellite insurance sector suffering
October 29, 2025
By Chris Forrester
The satellite launch insurance sector represents about $500 million (€429.9m) in annual premiums, according to insurers Marsh. But despite the massive increase in satellite launches over the past few years the number of launches covered by insurance is down significantly.
From a peak in 2020-2021 when about 60 percent of all launches were covered with insurance, that percentage is down now to barely 20 percent. This number excludes SpaceX’s Starlink launches which are uninsured. Many SpaceX non-Starlink launches are insured.
Patton Kline, New York-based US aviation and space practice leader, at Marsh, told trade publication Business Insurance, “There’s a lot more launch activity than there ever has been. The hope for the market is that those values are going to replace the historic values, but at this point, that hasn’t happened quite yet.”
Charles Wetton, London-based underwriting manager for Global Aerospace Underwriting Managers, agreed, saying: “We are not seeing people with large constellations insure their satellites. Most of the time, these satellites are not being insured. If they are being insured, it’s a small portion of coverage and the values are much lower than what we have seen in the past.”
The industry divides its coverage into various risks, where launch is but one element. Other segments include the period immediately after launch and in-orbit testing, the first year in orbit and then annual coverage.
One future point of optimism is that individual nations are increasing looking to operate their own Space Stations, similar to the International Space Station (ISS) now with more than 25 years of operation. The ISS is likely to be decommissioned at the end of this decade, and many nations are looking to its replacement. Those replacements could boost the insurance sector to values beyond $1 billion.
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