Space and satellite-related stocks soared Tuesday as investor enthusiasm around the industry intensified.
Growing excitement around the burgeoning space economy is increasingly favoring companies positioned to benefit not only from Elon Musk’s SpaceX filing for a public offering, but also from rising enthusiasm for space exploration and increased funding. On Tuesday, NASA picked Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin and other firms to jump start its lunar base program.
Shares of space infrastructure company Redwire Corp. closed up 26% to $22.04 in New York, and satellite broadband communication company AST SpaceMobile Inc. rose 13% to close at $119.70. Canadian satellite and robotics firm MDA Space Ltd. climbed 4.9% to end the trading session at C$61.82.
“The SpaceX IPO is drawing more investors and attention to other well positioned companies in the space industry,” Andres Sheppard, an analyst at Cantor Fitzgerald, wrote in a note to clients. Sheppard also sees space transportation company, Rocket Lab Corp., Intuitive Machines Inc. and Satellogic Inc. “as direct beneficiaries.”
Rocket and spacecraft maker Firefly Aerospace Inc. rose 19% to close at $58.81, after NASA selected its Elytra spacecraft to deliver four drones to the moon as part of the agency’s Moonfall mission.
Meanwhile, shares of Intuitive Machines quickly pared gains and fell Tuesday, ending the trading day down 8.9%, after the company was not selected by NASA to build lunar terrain rovers for the agency.
Intuitive Machines Chief Executive Officer Steve Altemus said in a statement that NASA’s lunar terrain vehicle is not a one-time mission and the company will “pursue additional opportunities as NASA expands lunar surface operations.”
A Bank of America Corp. basket of US companies that are key players and potential beneficiaries of the space race has climbed 57% this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. On Tuesday, the gauge posted its biggest one day gain since April of last year. Meanwhile, the Procure Space ETF (ticker: UFO), a fund with a market value of about $1 billion, has gained about 69% so far this year.
Both are far outpacing a 9.8% gain in the S&P 500 Index and an 19% advance in the Nasdaq 100 year-to-date.
Analysts and investors expect the global space economy to continue to expand. SpaceX is expected to benefit from the US Space Force’s 2027 budget, which is advancing toward $71 billion and jumped 78% from a year ago, according to Bloomberg Intelligence analysts Wayne Sanders and George Ferguson. Other “dual use” space companies including Black Sky, Firefly and Umbra, are also “positioned to potentially benefit from funding increases,” they added.
SpaceX is expected to hold its initial public offering (IPO) on June 12, 2026. The company will trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol SPCX
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