Investment in space companies

[Danderman]

Please excuse this if such a topic already exists, but it would be interesting to see a topic for investment in publicly traded pure space plays.

I am aware of AST trading under ASTS, but not many more. Are there publicly traded launch companies?

[Eric Hedman]

Virgin Galactic is publicly traded if you count them as a launch company.  There is speculation that Virgin Orbit may do an IPO.

[edzieba]

Freetrade (UK-based stockbroker) forums have a pretty extensive thread on space-related publicly traded companies: https://community.freetrade.io/t/spaaace-the-final-frontier/10696

[TrevorMonty]

Are there publicly traded launch companies?

ULA via Boeing and LM but ULA is small part of these companies.

Astra and RL when they go public. Astra seems to be purely launch while it only makes up half of RL business which is plus. Electron could disappear tomorrow and RL would carry on at greatly reduce size.

There are other space companies worth looking at, Redwire Group which has Made In Space plus few other small interesting companies. Blacksky for earth observation satellites and data. Both of these will list soon.


 



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[MechE31]

Take a look at ARKX

Their complete list of holdings can be found here:

https://ark-funds.com/wp-content/fundsiteliterature/holdings/ARK_SPACE_EXPLORATION_&_INNOVATION_ETF_ARKX_HOLDINGS.pdf

[spacenut]

I think Northrop-Grumman is public, but again, space related stuff is minor with them also. 

SpaceX and Blue Origin are privately owned.

[Kryten]

It's frequently overlooked that Avio, mostly known as the prime contractor on Vega, is a public company.

[TrevorMonty]

SNC Space when they list in few months.  NB will be separate from SNC which still be 100% owned by Ozmens.

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[Danderman]

Astra Space has gone public under the symbol ASTR, and I bought some shares.

So, the list is now:

ASTS
ASTR

[M.E.T.]

 

[trimeta]

 

We know, your opinion is that investing in any space company (including Spire Global, BlackSky, Redwire Space, and other companies developing payloads or satellite infrastructure, not just would-be launch providers) is foolish, because every space company will be bankrupt in a decade, dead in the wake of SpaceX.

[ringsider]

It's frequently overlooked that Avio, mostly known as the prime contractor on Vela, is a public company.

Vega.

Vela was the nuclear detonation detection satellite.

[M.E.T.]

 

We know, your opinion is that investing in any space company (including Spire Global, BlackSky, Redwire Space, and other companies developing payloads or satellite infrastructure, not just would-be launch providers) is foolish, because every space company will be bankrupt in a decade, dead in the wake of SpaceX.

Slight correction. The vast majority will be dead. A few will find a sweet spot and survive. Picking which ones that will be right now is extremely risky as an investment decision.

It is not clear to me what separates Astra from Relativity from Rocketlab from Virgin Orbit, other than different approaches to the same problem and resultant “claimed” advantages.

One claims cheap disposable rockets are the way to go, another that expensive, 3D manufactured reusable rockets are the ticket. A third (RocketLab) falls somewhere inbetween, and the last one (Virgin Orbit) claims the flexibility of air launch will guarantee the viability of their business case.

Meanwhile, SpaceX just keeps launching big sats, medium sats and small sats cheaply, consistently and frequently, undeterred.

Maybe one of the above would-be challengers will make it in the long term. But it is not clear to me which one that might be.

Hence why I will not be investing in any of these SPACs.

[su27k]

Well Astra went head to head with Starship and won, that's a plus, I don't think any other smallsat launcher can make the same claim.

[M.E.T.]

Well Astra went head to head with Starship and won, that's a plus, I don't think any other smallsat launcher can make the same claim.

I understand this was said partly in jest, but just to be clear, no one is saying these companies will not win ANY launches. The question is whether they can sustainably win the HUNDREDS of launches per year (in the case of Astra’s claimed projections) to justify their investment proposals and business cases.

[TrevorMonty]

Well Astra went head to head with Starship and won, that's a plus, I don't think any other smallsat launcher can make the same claim.

I understand this was said partly in jest, but just to be clear, no one is saying these companies will not win ANY launches. The question is whether they can sustainably win the HUNDREDS of launches per year (in the case of Astra’s claimed projections) to justify their investment proposals and business cases.

I investing in RL just to have some skin in game. Not expecting them to achieve their optimistic forecast but do expect them to do OK in long run. One thing RL has going for them is launch only makes up half their business.

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[Danderman]

Well Astra went head to head with Starship and won, that's a plus, I don't think any other smallsat launcher can make the same claim.

I understand this was said partly in jest, but just to be clear, no one is saying these companies will not win ANY launches. The question is whether they can sustainably win the HUNDREDS of launches per year (in the case of Astra’s claimed projections) to justify their investment proposals and business cases.

I investing in RL just to have some skin in game. Not expecting them to achieve their optimistic forecast but do expect them to do OK in long run. One thing RL has going for them is launch only makes up half their business.

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How do you invest in RocketLabs, are they public now?

[Redclaws]

Well Astra went head to head with Starship and won, that's a plus, I don't think any other smallsat launcher can make the same claim.

I understand this was said partly in jest, but just to be clear, no one is saying these companies will not win ANY launches. The question is whether they can sustainably win the HUNDREDS of launches per year (in the case of Astra’s claimed projections) to justify their investment proposals and business cases.

I investing in RL just to have some skin in game. Not expecting them to achieve their optimistic forecast but do expect them to do OK in long run. One thing RL has going for them is launch only makes up half their business.

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How do you invest in RocketLabs, are they public now?

They are merging with a SPAC, Vector Acquisition Holdings.  That has not finished yet but the stock of the SPAC will become that of Rocket Lab once the merger has completed, so it’s kind of almost like investing in RL.

[trimeta]

Well Astra went head to head with Starship and won, that's a plus, I don't think any other smallsat launcher can make the same claim.

I understand this was said partly in jest, but just to be clear, no one is saying these companies will not win ANY launches. The question is whether they can sustainably win the HUNDREDS of launches per year (in the case of Astra’s claimed projections) to justify their investment proposals and business cases.

I investing in RL just to have some skin in game. Not expecting them to achieve their optimistic forecast but do expect them to do OK in long run. One thing RL has going for them is launch only makes up half their business.

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How do you invest in RocketLabs, are they public now?

Rocket Lab is in the process of merging with the SPAC Vector Acquisition Corporation. The latter's stock symbol is VACQ, although once the merger is complete (I haven't heard specifics about when this is anticipated to happen), it will be transitioned to RKLB.

Full disclosure: I have a bit of VACQ myself, barely enough to really be an investment, more just to feel like I have a personal stake.

[Asteroza]

Take a look at ARKX

Their complete list of holdings can be found here:

https://ark-funds.com/wp-content/fundsiteliterature/holdings/ARK_SPACE_EXPLORATION_&_INNOVATION_ETF_ARKX_HOLDINGS.pdf

I used to say ARKX is probably the best choice for now for average folks who want to invest in newspace, baring some boutique stuff offered from asian investment houses. The only problem is that for an allegedly space oriented fund, there's a fair bit of not-space in it too, and not as much newspace as previously?