Al Root
Space is getting busier. That's good for a bevy of stocks.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, or NASA, has been in the news a lot lately, outlining its strategic objectives and preparing to fly astronauts to the moon and back in just a few days.
It's an exciting time for space businesses, but not all space news is good news. Shares of Intuitive Machines, Rocket Lab, Firefly Aerospace, and Redwire dropped an average of almost 5% on Tuesday. Intuitive stock dropped almost 12%. Part of the problem was NASA's announcement that it would pause its Gateway project, a space station orbiting the moon.
That means potentially less business for companies that build things for and take things into space. There is plenty of space-related business to do, though. NASA plans to build a moon base, costing tens of billions, and is adding Artemis missions, the program designed to take Americans back to the lunar surface.
NASA is also "seeking industry feedback on an additional low-Earth orbit strategy" to ensure a "robust commercial ecosystem." That signals more activity above the atmosphere.
What's more, those are NASA's plans, and they don't include military space business or private enterprise, including the communications and imaging networks being built out by SpaceX, AST SpaceMobile, Amazon.com, Planet Labs, and others.
Investors appear to be reconsidering Tuesday's sell-off. Shares of Intuitive Machines were up 4% in premarket trading, while S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were both up about 1.1%. Firefly stock was up 2.4%. Rocket Lab and Redwire shares were up 3% and 2.5%, respectively.
Those gains came as the Artemis II mission looks to take off on April 1. It will take four astronauts on a 10-day, million-plus-mile journey around the far side of the moon. It will be the first lunar flyby in some 50 years.
The astronauts will be launched aboard an Orion spacecraft made by Lockheed Martin and other partners, propelled by the huge Space Launch System, or SLS, managed by NASA and built by several partners, including Boeing.
SLS isn't reusable, like a SpaceX Falcon 9, and it's expensive, costing an estimated $24 billion. That doesn't include the cost of the capsule or other infrastructure. SpaceX, for comparison, has raised an estimated $12 billion over its entire history. Currently, its reusable rockets account for more than half of worldwide orbital launches.
Despite the cost, the mission is a milestone for NASA and another sign that the space Renaissance continues.
Write to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com
This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 25, 2026 10:14 ET (14:14 GMT)
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