The database captures 33 companies and 18 subsidiaries. We present a few general key findings from the database below. For a more specific discussion, see the full report.

Dual use: The products and services that the companies supply to space activities are many of the same that are offered to Israel, repackaged (rockets, engines, guidance systems, ballistics, computational software, data facilities), embodying the concept of “dual use” technologies. While this is not a novel observation, it is one we emphasize as important regardless of the percentage of revenue that is attributed to the space activities in any company’s portfolio—these are connected income streams and labor forces.

Circular relationships: We highlight the circular relationships between these largely US and European defense companies directly with Israeli aerospace: companies and space agencies working directly with Israel Space Agency, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), and Elbit Systems to develop technologies. The IOF historically adapts or copies parts, components, and aircraft directly from designs from, e.g., Dassault. Then, technologies are adapted back to US or European contexts. For example, Elbit and QinetiQ held a contract to adapt Elbit’s Hermes 450 drone for use at the UK border. These circular relationships are important context for dual-use development for the space industry.

Constellations of harm: There is a mirrored process by which these dual-use technologies are developed. Spacecraft such as Webb Space Telescope or the Space Launch System (SLS) are constructed by a coalition of companies contracted to a project, often cooperating under a temporary name (e.g., United Launch Alliance). Similarly, the Hellfire missile, the F-35, and the Apache helicopter (to give but a few examples) are also built by a number of companies, sometimes on joint contracts.

Chemical weapons: Two companies in the database—Thiokol, General Dynamics—produce white phosphorus for Israel, with documented use in Lebanon since October. Thiokol has provided components for numerous NASA missions, from Apollo and Voyager to the Space Shuttle. General Dynamics has supported nearly every Mars lander and rover launched by NASA and holds contracts for the Deep Space Network and Mars Sample Return. Northrup Grumman and Lockheed Martin, who acquired Thiokol and General Dynamics, respectively, are significant contractors for space projects.

Diverse genocides: We highlight the degree to which major defense companies seek out sponsorships of conferences and other events, with a focus on diversity; for example, Raytheon boasts numerous webpages concerning diversity. “Diversity washing” or “social washing” is not a new phenomenon, and in the specific context of Palestine, purplewashing has been used to describe the use of women’s rights as propaganda against Palestinians. As defense companies involved in NASA’s Artemis program emphasize NASA’s own advertisement of the mission that will take the “first woman and the first person of color” to the Moon, there emerges a triple-use of gender or race: the very act of building spacecraft-cum-missile further generates equity for the hypothetical Western woman/person of color.

Remote sensing: portfolios of crisis, or a crisis of portfolios? Maxar and Planet Labs (the latter not included in the database) present portfolios that support “humanitarian causes” during “crises,” but both provide data and/or satellite manufacture services to governments, including departments of defense and surveillance. In late October through early November 2023, during an extended bombing campaign by Israel on Jabalia refugee camp in North Gaza during which the IOF dropped 2,000-lb BLU-109 bombs (supplied by the US and manufactured by General Dynamics) and killed over 400 Palestinians, Planet and Maxar restricted access to satellite data products that would have provided evidence of this war crime. Indeed, mapping, cartography, and remote sensing have historically been used as tools of settler colonialism in Palestine for over a century.

Complicity is static, even if companies are not: The space sector is a fluid ecosystem of private industry and government agencies (including defense departments), while government aerospace development increasingly neoliberalizes and outsources to private industry (Gál and Jacob 2023). This generates a widespread ecosystem of the companies and states that bear responsibility for settler colonialism, occupation, war, and genocide.

Actions work: Despite an immense propaganda machine, these companies have faced decades of protest, and report direct action as a risk in financial reports. On page 8 of their 2023 annual report, under “Risks Related to Our Business and Industry,” Teledyne reports that “disruptions in shipping routes using the Red Sea and Suez Canal” as a risk, as well as that “Pro-Palestinian activist groups have targeted the facilities of defense companies, including our sites. Actions taken by these groups have the potential to disrupt activity and temporarily halt production at the sites targeted.” They continue to report that one of the factors “that have affected and are likely to continue affecting…level of demand for our products and services [in the oil and gas industry]” is “disruption of shipping lanes in the Red Sea.”

Public image may even play a role in the disappearance or lack of information about defense products, which we encountered in assembling the data. Palestine Action reported in December 2022 that after activists had sabotaged Teledyne Labtech’s factory in Wales, Teledyne removed a page that listed some of the products it manufactures. The 2023 financial report emphasizes that “less than 1.0%” of its net revenue in 2022 and 2023 came from “sales from Israel.”