Tools

Industry-standard commercial CFD. Dominant in established primes (Boeing, Lockheed, Airbus). $50k+/seat. Most NewSpace startups use OpenFOAM or Star-CCM+ instead.

Open source CFD toolbox. Most widely used open CFD solver in aerospace R&D. C++ library. Large community, poor UX, very capable.

Siemens CFD solver. Competitive with Fluent. Slightly better meshing UX. Used by Rocket Lab, some EU launch startups.

Structural FEA. Standard for aerospace structural analysis. Modal, harmonic, transient dynamics. Pairs with Fluent for FSI.

NASA-originated FEA solver. MSC Nastran and NX Nastran variants. Dominant in legacy aerospace. Required by many NASA contracts.

General Mission Analysis Tool. NASA open source. Full-featured trajectory design, maneuver optimization, spacecraft propagation. Python scriptable.

Java space mechanics library. Highly accurate propagators (Eckstein-Hechler, Runge-Kutta). Used by ESA, CNES, many European NewSpace startups.

Systems Tool Kit (AGI/Ansys). Industry standard for orbital analysis, coverage, access windows, sensor modeling. $50k+/seat. Free academic license.

Python astrodynamics library. Quick trajectory calculations, Hohmann transfers, Lambert arcs. Good for prototyping before STK/GMAT.

Dassault Systèmes MBSE and CAD platform. Dominant in prime contractors. Required by many aerospace supply chain partners. CATIA V5 and V6 (3DEXPERIENCE).

Autodesk cloud CAD. Free for startups under $100k revenue. Popular for early-stage hardware companies and cubesat teams.

Most common CAD tool at NewSpace startups. Lower cost than CATIA. Strong community. Dassault product — integrates with CATIA for supply chain.

Lightweight open source RTOS. Common in cubesats and cost-sensitive spacecraft. AWS-maintained. Not safety-certified but widely used.

Wind River RTOS. DO-178C certifiable. Dominant in safety-critical aerospace. Used in Mars rovers, ISS, many launch vehicles.

NASA core Flight System. Reusable flight software framework. Used across many NASA missions. Layered architecture — portable across processors.

Standard for flight software, embedded systems, real-time GNC. Performance-critical spacecraft code is almost always C or C++. MISRA-C for safety-critical.

MathWorks numeric computing. Simulink for flight software modeling. Required by many legacy primes. Being displaced by Python in NewSpace but still dominant in GNC.

Dominant scripting language in aerospace. GNC prototyping, data analysis, ML pipelines, ground software. NumPy/SciPy stack is the astrodynamics standard.

Memory-safe systems language. Growing aerospace adoption for ground software and non-safety-critical flight software. Formally verified subset emerging.

Typed superset of JavaScript. SpaceX website runs it. Growing in GNC ground software and web tooling across NewSpace.

AWS CDN. Paired with S3 for static sites and apps. NASA Eyes serves the Three.js solar system app through CloudFront.

AWS object storage. NASA Eyes uses it for the solar system app assets. Standard for static asset hosting in AWS-native stacks.

AWS. NASA Eyes runs on S3+CloudFront. Dominant cloud for government-adjacent space orgs. GovCloud for ITAR-sensitive workloads.

CDN, DDoS protection, DNS, Workers edge compute. SpaceX, Rocket Lab, Firefly all route through Cloudflare. Standard for NewSpace marketing sites.

Next.js deployment platform. Instant deploys, edge network. Blue Origin uses it. If a space company is on Vercel, their web team moves fast.

Managed WordPress hosting. Firefly uses it. WP Engine + WordPress = team outsourced the website problem, not a tech priority. Strong redesign pitch signal.

Vercel's Rust-based bundler, Next.js replacement for Webpack. Blue Origin uses it — signals active dependency updates and a modern dev workflow.

Open source mission control software (Ball Aerospace origin). Command and telemetry processing. Used by many NewSpace teams as affordable MCS.

Space Capital’s quarterly Space Investment Quarterly report and interactive database tracking startup activity, funding trends, and the full space economy since 2012. Trusted by VCs, PEs, corporates, and governments.

Google's TypeScript framework. Component-based, opinionated. SpaceX uses it — rare in NewSpace, more common in enterprise/gov adjacent teams.

Cloudflare's RUM (Real User Monitoring). Automatic with Cloudflare — signals the site is behind Cloudflare's network.

Cloudflare JS optimization — defers non-critical scripts. Rocket Lab uses it. Signals performance-conscious ops team.

Cloudflare's CAPTCHA replacement. Rocket Lab uses it — invisible challenges, no user friction.

GA4 — event-based analytics. Present on NASA, Rocket Lab, Firefly. Near-universal in NewSpace marketing sites. Key signal: they track traffic, they care about web performance.

Tag management. Present on Rocket Lab, Blue Origin, NASA. Signals a marketing team that actively manages analytics and conversion tracking.

Google's lightweight web components library. lit-html + lit-element. Rocket Lab uses it — signals a team that prefers standards over framework lock-in.

React meta-framework. SSR, SSG, app router. Blue Origin uses it on Vercel. Most common serious framework in NewSpace marketing sites.

Cookie consent and privacy compliance platform. Blue Origin uses it — signals they care about GDPR/CCPA compliance, likely have EU customers or government contracts.

Content analytics platform. NASA uses it — common in publishing/media orgs that care about content performance. Signals editorial team.

WordPress SEO plugin. NASA uses it — alternative to Yoast. Signals deliberate SEO effort on the government site.

Most common frontend framework in space company websites. Wappalyzer detects easily. Next.js is the dominant React framework for space company sites.

Full-stack Svelte framework. SpaceFOMO and Veenie are built on it. Fastest growing JS framework. Rare in space company websites — strong Veenie pitch angle.

WebGL 3D library. What Veenie's Threlte layer wraps. If a space company already uses Three.js, they understand the value prop. Strong Veenie upsell signal.

No-code/low-code website builder. Common in early-stage space startups for marketing sites. Good design ceiling, no interactive 3D capability.

CMS used by ~40% of the web. Significant presence in legacy aerospace company sites. Strong Veenie / redesign pitch signal — WordPress + Series B = outreach candidate.

Angular's async zone tracking library. Always present with Angular. SpaceX uses Angular 13 which bundles Zone.js.

Privacy-focused CAPTCHA alternative to reCAPTCHA. SpaceX uses it — signals a team that made a deliberate choice away from Google.

Google's CAPTCHA. NASA uses it. Standard form protection.