Space stocks are pushing ahead with their recent rally after the Memorial Day break, propelled by enthusiasm surrounding the initial public offering for SpaceX that was filed officially last week. Retail traders are piling into space stocks and ETFs ahead of the estimated trillion-dollar IPO, with investors trying to find beneficiaries and proxy trades for what could be the largest initial offering ever. While publicly traded space-focused companies are limited in number, enthusiasm is high among retail investors who want to get any piece of the space economy. The VanEck space ETF ( WARP ) is up 24 percent in just 5 days, with holdings including Rocket Lab Corp., Planet Labs , Firefly Aerospace and Intuitive Machines booming. The Procure Space ETF (UFO) is up about 65% year-to-date and more than 100% over the past six months. Analysts see both direct and indirect beneficiaries of the IPO for space companies due to SpaceX’s “monopolistic” position within the global launch sector that could provide momentum for a wide range of space-related companies. “[The] launch segment has ‘monopolistic’ market share: SpaceX maintains overwhelming leadership in orbital mass-to-orbit,” Rohit Kulkarni, senior analyst with Roth, wrote in a Tuesday note. “Extreme vertical integration drives cost advantages and rapid iteration.” Beneficiaries and proxies Wall Street is seeing an “IPO premium” that’s boosting not only SpaceX’s suppliers and partner companies but even its competitors. Launch company Rocket Lab, which won a $90 million contract last week with the U.S. Space Force to build and operate a pair of geostationary satellites, is one firm that’s poised to ride the tailwinds. “As SpaceX’s direct competitor, we view [Rocket Lab] as well positioned to benefit from the ‘SpaceX IPO premium’ that, in our view, is benefiting other well-positioned companies in the space sector,” analysts for Cantor Fitzgerald wrote in a Tuesday note. WARP 5D mountain VanEck Space ETF (WARP), 5 days Cantor has an overweight rating on space hardware builder Intuitive Machines, calling it a “direct beneficiary” of the IPO. Satellite-maker Satellogic has coupled its growth strategy to SpaceX, analysts have noted. This could spell gains in both the short and long term. “Satellogic has de-risked and industrialized constellation deployment by tightly coupling its scale-up strategy to SpaceX and the Falcon 9 rideshare ecosystem,” Andres Sheppard and Anand Balaji wrote for Cantor back in February. “Strategically, SpaceX is not a competitive threat here but an enabler, allowing Satellogic to scale faster and cheaper than its peers without bearing launch risk.” Rocket Lab is up more than 78% since the beginning of the year. Intuitive Machines is up more than 110%, and Satellogic is up more than 440% year-to-date. SpaceX’s direct suppliers – ranging from specialized metal manufacturers, semiconductor makers and radio hardware producers – are all positioned to benefit from the IPO, analysts say. “Anybody who provides Falcon parts is well-positioned to gain from the coming IPO,” one Wall Street analyst told CNBC on Tuesday morning. More companies in the vapor trail Analysts see a range of different SpaceX-related plays for retail investors but are singling out hardware and infrastructure builders for the retail trade. “Retail investors appear increasingly focused on ‘picks-and-shovels’ space names rather than direct launch competitors,” analysts for Vanda said in a note last week. “Retail appetite is picking up in smaller and more speculative space names including Sidus Space, Satellogic and Planet Labs, reinforcing the broadening retail interest across the space trade beyond the more established proxy names.” Aerospace manufacturer Redwire (RDW), which represents about 5% of the VanEck space ETF, is riding “space and defense sector tailwinds,” according to a March note from Michael Ciarmoli at Truist Securities. The stock is up more than 130% over the past month and 60% in the past five days. “Following the 2025 acquisition of Edge Autonomy, RDW transitioned itself from a pure-play space company to a diversified defense technology multi-domain provider of next-gen capabilities,” Ciarmoli said, calling it an “under the radar done play.” ASTS SpaceMobile, a satellite and communications company that has launch agreements with SpaceX, is one of the top components of a basket of retail-favorite stocks (GSXURFAV) maintained by investment bank Goldman Sachs. “[This] basket of stock popular with retail traders has rallied by 29% [since mid-April],” Daniel Chavez at Goldman wrote in a May 13 note to clients. EchoStar Corp, another WARP holding, has had about a 2% stake in SpaceX, leading investors to think of it as a proxy. “EchoStar is increasingly a bet on SpaceX,” Michael Hodel wrote for Morningstar in March. The stock is flat in Tuesday morning trading and up 2% on the month, but is up more than 75% over the past six months.
