Figure 1 shows the total number of patent families published worldwide each year for the last 20 years. The patent families in this plot have all been categorised by the relevant patent offices as relating to Cosmonautics. As shown in Figure 1, the number of patent families in cosmonautics has increased dramatically over the past 20 years. The growth has been particularly steep since 2016, growing from about 1050 to about 2550 publications per year. This reflects a decade of rapid growth in the space sector, both in terms of innovation and investment.