Wall Street is salivating for SpaceX’s blockbuster IPO this week, but demand is so high that retail investors may not be able to buy shares at the offering price and will likely have to pay a steep premium once they trading begins.
While SpaceX is the clear industry leader, there are already a number of publicly traded stocks with exposure to different parts of the expanding space economy.
The space sector has come into renewed focus as the U.S. and China race to the moon. Meanwhile, SpaceX also seeks to build a colony on Mars, and the Trump administration plans to create the “Golden Dome” space-based missile shield.
In addition to rocket companies that launch payloads into orbit, others in the sector develop satellites and vehicles or provide space-based services like communications and imagery. Some are recent upstarts, while others have been mainstays for decades.
Elon Musk started SpaceX in 2002 to challenge the dominance of Boeing and Lockheed Martin. By pioneering the development of reusable boosters that can land autonomously, the company slashed launch costs and ramped up its launch cadence—suddenly making low Earth orbit more accessible to a broad range of customers.
Led by the Falcon rocket and Falcon Heavy for bigger payloads, SpaceX claimed more than 80% of global rocket launches last year and has more than 10,000 Starlink satellites in orbit. But despite its emergence as the new industry leader, there’s room in the growing space economy for other companies.
Rocket Lab develops small and medium-class rockets, spacecraft and components while also providing launch services, satellite manufacturing, and on-orbit management.
Rocket Lab headquarters located in Mt Wellington, Auckland, on November 19, 2019. Dean Purcell/The New Zealand Herald via Getty ImagesVirgin Galactic is a space travel company serving private individuals, researchers, and government agencies via spacecraft it has developed.
AST SpaceMobile plans to build a global cellular broadband network in space and is developing a constellation of BlueBird satellites.
Voyager Technologies is a space and defense supplier making a variety of systems, such as propulsion and communications gear.
Firefly Aerospace designs, manufactures, and operates rockets, lunar landers, and orbital spacecraft. Last year, its Blue Ghost robotic vehicle landed on the moon.
Intuitive Machines designs spacecraft, delivers payloads to the lunar surface, and provides infrastructure services. It has also put landers on the moon.
Intuitive Machines presents a Lunar Terrain Vehicle alongside its second moon lander on Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025 in Houston. Raquel Natalicchio/Houston Chronicle via Getty ImagesPlanet Labs designs, builds, and operates a fleet of satellites that provides global imagery and geospatial data.
Similarly, BlackSky Technology provides on-demand, high-frequency imagery and data via proprietary satellites and ones from third parties.
Spire Global also builds, owns, and operates satellites, but its constellation provides real-time aircraft tracking, weather forecasting data, and energy trading intelligence.
Meanwhile, aerospace and defense giants like Boeing, Lockheed, and Northrop Grumman have deep roots in the space industry going back decades.
For instance, Boeing played foundational roles in the Apollo program and space shuttle. More recently, it built the Space Launch System used in the Artemis lunar mission. Lockheed also developed the Orion space capsule for Artemis.
Boeing and Lockheed are joint venture partners in the United Launch Alliance, which develops rockets that put payloads in space.
Northrop, which designed and built NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, makes satellites and space vehicles for on-orbit refueling while suppling a range of civil and military systems.
Other aerospace and defense heavyweights like RTX, General Dynamics, L3 Harris, and Leidos play key roles in the space sector as well.
A version of this story originally published on Fortune.com on May 24, 2026.
The United Launch Alliance (ULA) Vulcan Centaur rocket is transported to Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on January 5, 2024. CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP via Getty ImagesThis story was originally featured on Fortune.com
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