Donald Trump Wants to Go to Mars. It's Sending Space Stocks to the Moon

President Donald Trump set a bold new goal in his inauguration speech. He wants to go to Mars.

Details are thin, but the aspiration should benefit Elon Musk's SpaceX and a bevy of publicly traded commercial space stocks.

Shares of the Destiny Tech100 Inc, which has SpaceX as the biggest holding in its portfolio, are up 8.32%. The Procure Space ETF is up 2%. Shares of space-tourism company Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc. are up 8%.

It is also a chance for other companies to win new business from NASA. Shares of launch services provider Rocket Lab USA, Intuitive Machines, and space component supplier Redwire were up 8%, 4.86%, and 8.6%, respectively, in premarket trading.

"Above all, my message to Americans today is that it is time for us to once again act with courage, vigor, and the vitality of history's greatest civilization," said Trump in a speech from the Capitol. "We will pursue our manifest destiny into the stars, launching American astronauts to plant the Stars and Stripes on the planet Mars."

There are a few ways Trump could accomplish planting the flag. He could lean into NASA's Artemis program, which is designing the rockets, spacecraft, and in-space infrastructure to take America back to the moon and, eventually, to Mars.

That is likely the priciest option. Government estimates put the total cost of that program over time at close to $100 billion. That's almost 10 times the amount of money SpaceX has spent over its entire life.

A second way would be to lean into NASA's push to buy services and technology from third-party providers. That has been a success. SpaceX rockets and spaceships routinely take astronauts to and from the International Space Station. Intuitive Machines' lunar lander Odysseus rode a SpaceX rocket to the moon in early 2024, markingthe first time America landed on the moon in some 50 years.

The commercial option is a chance for SpaceX to win more business. It does billions of dollars in business with the government, for good reason, given that it is the commercial space leader by a long shot. It launched about 140 rockets into orbit in 2024, more than half of the world's total.

Shares of traditional space companies and NASA suppliers aren't moving as much. Boeing and Lockheed Martin shares were up about 0.4% and 0.6%, respectively.

The commercial option looks more likely than Artemis. Trump has nominated aerospace entrepreneur Jared Isaacman to run NASA. In 2024, he became the first private citizen to do a spacewalk. He did it from a SpaceX Dragon capsule in September.

Trump could also simply lean on Musk. SpaceX intends to make an initial foray to Mars as soon as 2026 using its huge Starship, the largest rocket system built by humans.