Space

The Launchers

Own the rockets — the tollbooth to orbit

SPCX — SpaceX

Falcon 9, Starship, and Starlink: launches more mass to orbit than the rest of the planet combined, and owns the biggest satellite constellation ever built. Public since June 2026 — the largest IPO in history.

Why it matters: The gravity well at the center of the industry — every other space company either rides on SpaceX, competes with it, or both.

Outlook: IPO’d June 2026 at $135/share (~$75B raised, ~$1.8T valuation) and has traded volatilely since as the market digests Starship cadence and Starlink growth — 2025 revenue was $18.7B with ~$37B expected for 2026.

market cap $1.63T · revenue $25B (research snapshot; source date not recorded here)

Check the data: Yahoo Finance quote & financials · Find SEC filings

RKLB — Rocket Lab

The clear #2 in launch: Electron for small payloads, Neutron coming for medium-lift, plus a fast-growing satellite components and spacecraft business.

Why it matters: The only publicly traded pure-play with a working orbital rocket — the retail investor’s SpaceX proxy.

Outlook: Neutron’s debut dominates the story while Electron flies at record cadence; revenue growing ~64% YoY on launch plus the fast-scaling satellite-systems business.

market cap $42B · revenue $700M (research snapshot; source date not recorded here)

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BLUEORIGIN — Blue Origin (private)

Jeff Bezos’ launch company: New Glenn heavy-lift ramping, Blue Moon landers for NASA’s Artemis program, and the Blue Ring spacecraft that just won the $700M Mars Telecommunications Network contract over Rocket Lab (Sept 2026).

Why it matters: The deepest-pocketed challenger to SpaceX and the competitor that beats Rocket Lab for the flagship NASA contracts — private, patient, and Bezos-funded.

The Constellations

Satellite fleets selling connectivity and imagery

ASTS — AST SpaceMobile

Building satellites that connect directly to ordinary phones — no dish, no special hardware — with AT&T, Verizon, and Vodafone as partners.

market cap $22B · revenue $100M (research snapshot; source date not recorded here)

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PL — Planet Labs

Operates hundreds of imaging satellites photographing the entire Earth daily — selling the pictures to governments, agriculture, and AI.

market cap $8B · revenue $300M (research snapshot; source date not recorded here)

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Moon & Infrastructure

Landers, components, and the lunar economy

LUNR — Intuitive Machines

First private company to soft-land on the Moon — flying NASA cargo missions and building lunar communications infrastructure.

market cap $2B · revenue $300M (research snapshot; source date not recorded here)

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RDW — Redwire

Space infrastructure roll-up: solar arrays, camera systems, and components that fly on other people’s spacecraft.

market cap $2B · revenue $400M (research snapshot; source date not recorded here)

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The Customers

Who actually pays for space

Governments

NASA and the Pentagon — still the anchor customers for launch, lunar missions, and national-security satellites.

Consumers

Starlink households and, soon, ordinary phones connecting through carrier deals — space revenue finally coming from regular people.

Relationships on the map

• SpaceX supplies AST SpaceMobile — Launch services (~$500M/yr)
  AST’s giant BlueBird satellites ride to orbit on Falcon 9 — even while Starlink competes with them.
• SpaceX supplies Intuitive Machines — Falcon 9 rides
  Intuitive Machines’ lunar landers launch on Falcon 9.
• Rocket Lab supplies Planet Labs — Electron launches
  Planet has flown imaging satellites on Rocket Lab’s Electron.
• Redwire supplies Intuitive Machines — Spacecraft components
  Redwire-class components — solar arrays, cameras — fly on landers like Intuitive Machines’.
• SpaceX competes with Rocket Lab — Launch market
  Neutron is aimed squarely at Falcon 9’s medium-lift monopoly.
• Blue Origin competes with Rocket Lab — NASA contracts
  Blue Origin took NASA’s $700M Mars relay orbiter from Rocket Lab in September 2026 — the two now fight for the same civil-space and constellation work.
• Blue Origin competes with SpaceX — Heavy lift
  New Glenn is the only heavy-lift rocket built to take on Falcon Heavy and Starship, backed by the one fortune deep enough to keep trying.
• AST SpaceMobile competes with SpaceX — Direct-to-cell
  AST’s phone-native broadband races Starlink’s direct-to-cell service for the same spectrum deals.
• SpaceX supplies Consumers — Starlink broadband (~$12B/yr)
  Starlink subscriptions are now the majority of SpaceX revenue — consumers, not NASA, fund Starship.
• SpaceX supplies Governments — NASA & Space Force launches (~$5B/yr)
  Falcon and Dragon fly the government’s crews, cargo, and national-security payloads.
• Rocket Lab supplies Governments — Launch & space systems (~$600M/yr)
  Government and defense work anchors Rocket Lab’s launch and satellite-components backlog.
• Intuitive Machines supplies Governments — NASA lunar missions (~$300M/yr)
  NASA’s commercial lunar program is effectively Intuitive Machines’ revenue base.
• AST SpaceMobile supplies Consumers — Direct-to-phone (via carriers) (~$200M/yr)
  AST reaches consumers through AT&T and Verizon — the carriers sell it, the satellites deliver it.