The picks and shovels of space

The Artemis II astronauts plunged back into Earth’s orbit successfully, Project Hail Mary broke box office records, and President Trump just declared he wants nuclear reactors…on the moon?

Space is back in a big way.

“A combination of scientific advancements, geopolitics and economics have rekindled investor attention on the Space theme to the highest levels we have seen since launching the Morgan Stanley Space Team nearly a decade ago,” explained Morgan Stanley equity analyst Adam Jonas.

The Morgan Stanley team pointed out that the number of objects launched into space has grown 20% annually, and the number of objects successfully launched into space has grown 25%. Meanwhile, the White House just boosted the US Space Force budget by 77% year over year.

Not only is space travel booming, creating more demand, but the critical materials that make space travel possible are in short supply, opening a window of opportunity for companies that can grab market share while the new space race is just beginning.

To the moon, literally

To give investors a road map for how to work outer space into their portfolios, Morgan Stanley analysts created a “Space 60” list of publicly traded firms that are the “picks and shovels” that make space travel possible. They broke the companies down into seven themes:

• Raw materials and mining: These are the companies that extract minerals, including MP Materials, Almonty, and Alcoa.
• Specialty materials and alloys: These firms build materials that can withstand the extreme conditions that come with entering space, including Carpenter, ATI, and Corning.
• Propulsion and fuels: This category is pretty self explanatory, and includes Air Products, Linde, and NewMarket.
• Electronics and semiconductors: The big dogs are in this category, such as Nvidia, Broadcom, and Microchip.
• Components and subsystems: These are manufacturing firms that manufacture the small things that make a spacecraft actually work, like fluid valves. That includes Honeywell, Ametek, and Amphenol.
• Spacecraft and launch systems: This category is more straightforward, and includes Boeing, RTX, and Voyager.
• Satellite operators and services: These are the companies that are helping satellites communicate with Earth, such as Amazon, Globalstar (which Amazon is actually acquiring), and Blacksky.

All we know is that if there’s a technology that can bring Rocky to life, that should be a priority.—LB