More than 50 years after Apollo 11, a new age of space exploration is opening up. This century’s adventurers are pushing the boundaries of space exploitation — and investors are starting to take notice.
2020 and 2021 brought a new wave of space companies going public, often by way of a SPAC, or special purpose acquisition company. New products are being launched to capitalize on this growing industry, such as the ARK Space Exploration and Innovation ETF ARKX, +0.09% , which came to market in late March.
What we’re seeing now is initial interest in a sector that has an infinite growth trajectory and is only just getting started. Consider the markets and industries that you know today. While they continue to grow due to rapid innovation, new technology and an influx of data from satellites in space, they are only focused on one planet: Earth. It’s only a matter of time until their growth expands beyond our planet and into space, requiring a range of more (and new) services and an infrastructure in space to support the growth.
Simon Drake, co-founder of Space Ventures Investors , captures this thought perfectly when he says, “What sets space investing apart from other sectors is that the space industry has no boundaries; humanity will always be pushing at new frontiers.”
The business of space is in its exponential growth phase, and what unifies all current projects is the need to create complex new technologies and infrastructures to manage space missions of any size. According to a recent report by Morgan Stanley , reusable rockets, decreasing launch costs and the miniaturization of satellite technology are opening up new business opportunities. In the past ten years, $177.7 billion of equity investment has been made into 1,343 space companies. The global space industry is expected to generate revenue of $1.4 trillion or more by 2030, up from $350 billion in 2020.