From SpaceX's IPO to orbital data centers, execs say industry's future still in 'earliest innings'

Résumé détaillé

SpaceX's (SPCX) blockbuster IPO this year put the space economy squarely on Wall Street's radar. The bigger question for investors now is where the next leg of growth comes from.

SpaceX's (SPCX) blockbuster IPO this year put the space economy squarely on Wall Street's radar. The bigger question for investors now is where the next leg of growth comes from.

That was the focus of "From Rockets to Revenue: Sizing Up the Space Economy," a panel at Yahoo Finance's Invest Conference earlier this week. Firefly Aerospace (FLY) CEO Jason Kim, Muon Space CEO Jonny Dyer, and Roundhill Investments ETF strategist Thomas DiFazio weighed in on launch economics, the next generation of satellites, defense, and data centers in orbit.

The SpaceX IPO marked space going mainstream. "The thing I take away from it is that space is now mainstream," said Dyer, a former SpaceX employee. For 60 years, space was "the domain of only big governments and defense," he said. Now, technology and infrastructure on Earth and in space are converging, and "we're just in the earliest innings."

DiFazio, whose firm runs the Roundhill Space & Technology ETF (MARS), called the offering's size and valuation "a really major endorsement" of the industry. He acknowledged the "emotional" fever pitch around the debut subsided as investors work out where the sector goes next.

The scale has changed dramatically. The late 1950s and early 1960s saw single-digit launches a year. Today there are hundreds, moving space "from what has been a government-led sector to what is now commercial-scale infrastructure," DiFazio said.

Launch demand still outstrips supply. DiFazio said launch providers are "not going anywhere," citing growing backlogs. Kim said customers are "just dying for more capacity."

Firefly is ramping up its small Alpha rocket, with six ship sets of Reaver engine chambers delivered in the fourth quarter alone. Flight 8 is preparing to launch, with flights 9 through 12 right behind it. Its medium-lift Eclipse rocket has logged more than 175 hot fires of its Miranda engine, totaling over 4,200 seconds.

Kim called Firefly's recent deal with AST SpaceMobile (ASTS) a "win-win." AST gets control…

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