Austria is a recognized partner in the space world. The Federal Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology (BMVIT), as the responsible governmental department and policy maker, directly invests around 70 M EUR in the space sector per year, most of it for programmes and projects within the framework of the European Space Agency (ESA).

Austria participates in ESA programmes for Earth observation, telecommunications, technology development, scientific instruments and exploration, launchers, satellite navigation and space situational awareness.

In addition, Austria invests around 30M EUR per year as a co-owner of the European Union (EU) space infrastructures such as Copernicus (Earth observation) and Galileo (navigation), as well as for SST (Space Surveillance and Tracking) and Horizon 2020 (research and innovation programme).