Launch Services & Propulsion

Alphabet Inc. has launched a prototype Tensor Processing Unit satellite aboard SpaceX's Transporter-18 mission on October 1, 2026, in partnership with Planet, marking its first concrete step toward putting data centers in orbit. The test, part of Google's Project Suncatcher, will examine how its TPUs handle launch stress, radiation, and extreme temperatures in low Earth orbit, with ground testing already showing Trillium TPUs can withstand radiation levels higher than those expected across a five-year mission. Heat management remains a key challenge because conventional air cooling does not work in a vacuum, prompting Google to evaluate heat pipes and radiators, and a two-satellite test is planned for 2027. Google emphasized the current mission is intended to collect engineering data rather than demonstrate a commercial system. SpaceX could benefit from additional orbital AI experiments if hyperscalers continue choosing its launch services, even as its valuation of over $2 trillion at about 45 times forward sales rests on management's own targets, including Elon Musk's expectation of a $100 billion annual revenue run rate by December and a $1 trillion revenue target moved up to 2030.

Jeff Bezos said Blue Origin could eventually go public after the space company raised $10 billion in a funding round that reportedly valued it at $140 billion. Speaking Wednesday on Fox News Channel's "Special Report with Bret Baier," the Amazon founder said an initial public offering could happen "several years from now" and that "it probably makes sense for Blue Origin to be a public company at some point." Bezos said he has invested approximately $28 billion in Blue Origin since launching it in 2000, and that the latest round marks the company's first major capital raise from outside investors. Blue Origin holds multibillion-dollar contracts from NASA and the U.S. Space Force, including work tied to NASA's Artemis lunar program, and competes with Elon Musk's Space Exploration Technologies in the commercial launch market. Bezos also said Blue Origin expects to fly its New Glenn rocket again in December, after a May explosion during a static-fire test delayed launch plans.

Barclays initiated coverage of SpaceX with an Overweight rating and a $254 price target, part of a broad rollout of coverage across the aerospace and defense group in which the firm said the U.S. is in the "early innings of a modern day industrial revolution." In the same sweep, Barclays started RTX, Palantir, Kratos Defense, Karman, DPC Holdings, CAE, Beta Technologies and Rocket Lab at Overweight, Planet Labs, FireFly Aerospace, AeroVironment, York Space Systems and Lockheed Martin at Equal Weight, and Northrop Grumman at Underweight. Among other calls, Baird upgraded Humana to Outperform from Neutral with a price target of $596, up from $390, citing greater confidence in the company's $35-plus of 2028 adjusted earnings per share power, while Morgan Stanley double upgraded Cboe Global Markets to Overweight from Underweight with a price target of $358, up from $258. On the downgrade side, JPMorgan cut DuPont to Neutral from Overweight with a price target of $145, down from $172, and removed the stock from its Analyst Focus List, and also downgraded Illinois Tool Works to Neutral from Overweight with a price target of $270, down from $350, both on concerns around decelerating short cycle industrial demand into 2027. Citi downgraded Pershing Square Inc. to Sell from Neutral with an unchanged price target of $45 on valuation, and RBC Capital downgraded Knife River to Sector Perform from Outperform with a price target of $58, down from $103. Other initiations included Truist starting IBM at Hold with a $240 price target, Citi starting Fortune Brands at Buy with a $48 price target, Freedom Broker starting Ultra Clean at Buy with a $127 price target, and JPMorgan resuming Trane at Overweight with a $550 price target.

Japan's Defense Ministry announced on the 9th that it will conduct research and study aimed at speeding up the launch of rockets that would carry new satellites into space, in preparation for attacks on the satellites used by the Self-Defense Forces. It began soliciting proposals from private companies on the 9th for technologies related to rocket manufacturing and launch methods, and after selecting operators in February next year, it will examine transport capacity, cost, and production systems. In recent years, the United States, China, and Russia have been advancing the military use of space, and the importance of the space domain in the security field is growing; the Defense Ministry is also moving quickly on responses, including formulating a space domain defense guideline last year, but shortening the time needed to restore functions when a satellite is lost has become a challenge. As specific research themes, it envisions stockpiling components and manufacturing parts using 3D printers, and for launch methods it will also consider sea-based, airborne, and vehicle-mounted or mobile options.

President Donald Trump purchased between $1M and $5M in SpaceX bonds on August 18, two days before signing a policy aimed at expanding commercial space transportation in the U.S., according to a financial disclosure released Thursday. The bonds are senior unsecured notes carrying a 5.35% interest rate and maturing in July 2031. The August 20 National Space Transportation Policy aims to support more than 1,000 U.S. launches and reentries annually by 2030 by accelerating permitting and expanding commercial access to federal launch facilities. SpaceX, founded by Elon Musk, is a major NASA launch provider and U.S. government contractor, and the timing of the purchase does not establish whether Trump knew about the policy in advance. Trump's August disclosure covered 517 securities transactions, including a purchase of between $5M and $25M in Meta Platforms shares on August 21, and the trades came weeks before Trump hosted Musk, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and other AI leaders at a White House summit on September 29. Richard Painter, a former White House ethics lawyer under President George W. Bush, told CNN there is a conflict of interest, while White House spokesperson Davis Ingle said Trump's stock and bond portfolio is independently managed by third-party financial institutions in discretionary accounts invested through computer-based model portfolios that automatically replicate recognized indexes such as the Schwab 1000.

NASA has cited Rocket Lab's Neutron rocket as a potential launch provider, alongside SpaceX's Falcon 9, for a bulk launch procurement tied to its planned US$30 billion moon base program. The agency is exploring multi-year launch contracts that could cover recurring cargo and infrastructure flights for the lunar initiative. If Neutron is selected, Rocket Lab would gain access to long-term, repeat business tied to the moon base plan, anchoring the rocket in a regular launch rhythm rather than one-off missions and helping spread development costs across a larger stream of contracted work. The key marker for investors is whether Neutron secures a place in NASA's multi-year contract awards once the bulk launch procurement is finalized, with a confirmed award and disclosed mission count or cadence showing how much of the program Rocket Lab actually captured versus other medium-lift providers.

Rocket Lab has booked 20 Electron launches for Synspective, a Japanese radar-imaging company, covering its StriX satellites between 2028 and 2031, in the company's largest Electron contract ever. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the agreement brings Synspective's total Electron missions to 47, more than any other customer, and lifts Rocket Lab's overall backlog past 100 missions. Citi analyst John Godyn initiated coverage with a Buy rating and a $105 price target one day after the contract was announced, calling the stock a core holding for space bulls, and the shares gained 4.7% in premarket trading on October 1. The stock trades at 43.51x forward sales, roughly 50% above its recent historical average of 28.96x, and even on 2029 earnings estimates its P/E stands at 108.88x, supported by forecast earnings growth of about 76% this year and 71% in 2029, along with $2.3 billion in cash against $133.69 million of debt. Hedge fund ownership rose from 43 funds at the end of Q1 2026 to 52 funds at the end of Q2 2026, while short interest remained elevated at 7.31% of float as of September 15, 2026.

Space Exploration Technologies completed Starship Flight 14 to low Earth orbit, deploying a batch of Starlink satellites. The company is in advanced talks with TSMC on an exclusive manufacturing arrangement for custom AI-focused semiconductor chips. Starlink also signed a new Direct to Cell partnership with Beeline Kazakhstan to extend satellite connectivity to standard mobile phones. The company, a US-based telecom player with a market cap of $2.3 trillion, faces an FAA review and has less than 1 year of cash runway. The Starship flight, the TSMC chip discussions and the Beeline Direct to Cell deal only show part of the SpaceX story.

Uber Technologies agreed to acquire Boston-based corporate catering platform ezCater for $2.3 billion in an all-cash deal, expanding the ride-hailing company into the workplace dining market. ezCater runs an online catering marketplace connecting businesses with more than 140,000 restaurants nationwide and generated over $2.5 billion in gross bookings over the trailing twelve months, with high-teens year-over-year growth. Separately, Marvell Technology shares jumped 10% in early trading after the chipmaker raised its fiscal 2028 revenue guidance to $20 billion at its investor day, up from a prior $18 billion and above analyst estimates of $18.2 billion; Marvell also expects customer revenue in fiscal 2029 to rise 200% or more, with total revenue reaching between $70 billion and $90 billion by fiscal 2031. Lamb Weston reported first-quarter adjusted EPS of $0.75, beating the $0.59 consensus, on sales up 1%, and raised its fiscal 2027 sales growth forecast to low single digits from flat to 1% while lifting its EPS outlook to $3.05 to $3.35. NASA is preparing to buy rocket launches in bulk to secure scarce capacity for a permanent human base on the moon, a $30 billion program, evaluating purchases of four or five launches at a time with an initial round expected soon, according to moon base program manager Carlos García-Galán.

Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas, who previously covered the auto sector and Tesla, has initiated coverage of SpaceX and called the stock cheap, according to Yahoo Finance Executive Editor Brian Sozzi. Jonas's bullish case rests on five catalysts: the upcoming Starship flight 15, where the market wants to see a successful catch of the rocket's upper stage; third quarter earnings in a few weeks, which Jonas says could offer the first real look at the economics and adoption rates of SpaceX's internal AI services including Cursor and Grokbot; Starship flight 16, expected before year end if flight 15 does not demonstrate the catch; the releases of Grok 4.8, 4.9 and 5.0; and further Neo cloud deals. Sozzi also flagged reports this week that SpaceX might sign a leasing capacity deal with Microsoft, and said investors should watch whether the company can win more business from Anthropic.

Morgan Stanley raised its price target on SpaceX shares to $300 with a buy rating, sending SpaceX stock up nearly 8% on Monday, October 5, touching its highest level since mid-June and pushing Elon Musk's wealth back to $1 trillion. The new target is roughly 75% above Monday's closing price of $171.09. Analysts said the stock still looks cheap relative to its current price, supported by the launch of new AI products, progress on the Starship program, and Neocloud service contracts. The target increase follows several key SpaceX milestones, including last week's Starship rocket launch, a NASA astronaut mission to the International Space Station, and the delivery of Google AI chips into orbit. Analysts recommended that investors buy ahead of the next Starship rocket test and before third-quarter earnings, expected in late October, noting that if SpaceX succeeds in testing a robotic arm to catch the Starship upper stage as it returns to the launch pad, it could be the most significant catalyst since the IPO. SpaceX's AI business remains another driver, after its acquisition of Musk's xAI last year and its additional purchase of Cursor, with SpaceX able to generate revenue by renting computing capacity to companies such as Google and Anthropic.

Rocket Lab has locked in its largest commercial Electron contract to date, a 20 launch deal with long time partner Synspective. The agreement gives investors fresh data on launch demand and long term mission cadence. Rocket Lab's most followed valuation story pegs fair value at $85.04 per share, above the recent $73.02 close, implying the stock is 14% undervalued. The company is mid transformation from a small launch specialist into a vertically integrated space and defense prime, with Space Systems now roughly 67% of revenue and growing fastest. A $1.85b backlog, up 73% year over year and anchored by the $816m SDA Tranche 3 award, provides multi year revenue visibility that the current trailing price to sales ratio of about 72x does not yet fully reflect. The story could still break if Neutron stumbles again or if the SDA driven defense backlog slows, since both are central to the valuation case.

SpaceX is seeking approval to build a natural gas pipeline in Florida to supply fuel to rockets launching from Cape Canaveral, according to documents filed with state regulators in September. The company's subsidiary, Coastal Connect Services, or CCS, has applied to the state Public Service Commission for authorization of rates and supply terms for a new 32.4-mile, 16-inch natural gas transmission pipeline in Brevard County, where Cape Canaveral is located. SpaceX uses liquid methane as propellant for its large Starship spacecraft, and the facility is expected to supply natural gas. According to the filings, CCS plans to build and operate pipeline facilities that would deliver natural gas directly to customers from the existing Florida Gas Transmission interstate pipeline. In its application, CCS said current truck deliveries and existing local pipelines cannot meet SpaceX's growing demand at Cape Canaveral, and that a new pipeline is essential to supply natural gas safely, efficiently and in a timely manner. SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters.

Rocket Factory Augsburg has appointed Alexander Dahm as Chief Executive Officer, succeeding Prof. Dr. Indulis Kalnins, who will remain associated with the company. Dahm brings more than 30 years of leadership experience in aerospace and defense, most recently serving as Chief Operating Officer of HENSOLDT Sensors and as a member of its Group Executive Committee, where he oversaw production, procurement, quality and logistics. He will be responsible for the company's continued development and its path to the maiden flight of the RFA ONE launch vehicle. Jean-Jacques Dordain, Chairman of the Supervisory Board, said Dahm's experience from the Ariane 5 program, senior roles at Airbus and most recently at HENSOLDT will be of great value for RFA's further development. Dahm said he looks forward to working with the RFA team to reach the next milestones on the way to the maiden flight of RFA ONE.

Rocket Lab Corporation announced a multi-year agreement to launch 20 new Electron missions from Launch Complex 1 for Synspective, carrying StriX synthetic aperture radar satellites to sun-synchronous orbit annually from 2028 through 2031. The contract is the largest commercial launch deal for Electron so far and lifts Rocket Lab's backlog above 100 missions, deepening its role in building Synspective's global Earth-imaging constellation. The deal reinforces Electron's position as a high-cadence small-launch workhorse and slightly reduces near-term lumpiness risk in the launch book, though the key near-term catalyst and risk remain Neutron test progress and ongoing cash burn. Rocket Lab's US$1.944 billion equity raise to fund the pending Iridium acquisition shows management leaning on the balance sheet to expand into higher-value space systems and communications, amplifying the benefits of large multi-year contracts like Synspective's while raising the stakes around dilution and execution. Analysts had already modeled revenue near US$2.2 billion and earnings around US$365 million by 2029 on the optimistic side, against a more cautious consensus that treats cash burn and contract lumpiness as core risks.

SpaceX shares have stabilized after notching an all-time low of $104.83 in early August, with the company citing fresh catalysts that could drive the stock higher into year-end and into 2027. Starship, SpaceX's two-stage rocket and the largest human-made flying object, recently reached orbit for the first time, and the recent flight deployed the first 26 next-generation Starlink V3 satellites. Anthropic expanded its computing agreements with SpaceX, committing up to $84.5 billion through May 2029 for NVIDIA-based AI infrastructure, while Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest SpaceX will grow revenue by 147% in 2027. The odds of a SpaceX and Tesla merger by the end of next year have spiked to 63% on Polymarket. The company also pointed to Planet Labs and Google's launch of the first AI satellite as proof of concept for its ambitions in space-based AI data centers.

Google said Thursday that its prototype satellite for Project Suncatcher, built in partnership with Planet Labs, launched into orbit aboard the Transporter-18 rideshare mission with SpaceX. The tech giant said its team has confirmed contact with the satellite, and it is operating as expected. Travis Beals, senior director of Project Suncatcher, wrote in a blog post following the launch that this is the first step in a long-term research moonshot exploring whether space could one day host scalable machine learning infrastructure, and that over the coming weeks the team will gather in-orbit data on how its TPUs handle the physical stress of spaceflight and the radiation and thermal extremes of space. Alphabet holds a stake worth more than $82B in SpaceX, which went public in June in a record IPO. SpaceX, led by Elon Musk, has also announced that it plans to build and launch its orbital data centers.

SpaceX launched four astronauts to the International Space Station on Thursday aboard a Crew Dragon capsule, marking the company's 13th crew rotation mission for NASA. The crew, consisting of two Americans, one Canadian, and one Russian cosmonaut, lifted off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral, Florida, on a Falcon 9 rocket. According to Bloomberg space correspondent Lauren Grush, the mission comes amid speculation that SpaceX may retire the Crew Dragon once the ISS program ends, with only four more crew rotation missions currently scheduled. The crew will spend roughly a week aboard the station before the previous Crew 12 team returns to Earth following a handover. Three of the four astronauts on this flight are first-time flyers.

Firefly Aerospace shares rose about 6% Wednesday morning after the space technology company announced a commercial agreement with Starcloud to test advanced artificial intelligence computing in lunar orbit. Under the deal, Starcloud's computing payload will fly aboard Firefly's Elytra orbital vehicle as part of a mission targeted for no earlier than 2028, with Starcloud's SC-1L processor receiving data from Firefly's Solux vision system, performing AI computing in orbit and sending the processed information back to Earth. The Starcloud payload is scheduled to join Firefly's third lunar mission, in which Elytra will initially serve as a transfer vehicle and communications relay for the company's Blue Ghost lander, expected to touch down at the Moon's Gruithuisen Domes under NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services program. After that portion of the mission is completed, Firefly plans to keep Elytra in lunar orbit for five years to support commercial and government payloads as well as imaging operations, including the Starcloud computing demonstration. Firefly is also developing its Ocula lunar imaging service and recently announced a collaboration with NVIDIA to process Ocula data aboard Elytra before transmitting results to Earth, while the company plans to send its first Elytra vehicle into lunar orbit with Blue Ghost Mission 2, targeted to launch no earlier than 2027.

Elon Musk's net worth ended the week at $925 billion, up more than $305 billion since January, as his path to trillionaire status stalled amid fading momentum at Tesla and SpaceX. Tesla will unveil the long-delayed Roadster, with the base model starting at around $200,000 and the Founders Series at $250,000, limited to 1,000 vehicles, while traders on Polymarket expect third-quarter deliveries of between 450k and 475k vehicles after 480k in the second quarter. SpaceX is set for its first orbital launch on Monday, a test that will carry the third version of Starlink to space; Starlink made over $4.29 billion in the second quarter, accounting for 53% of SpaceX revenue, and analysts expect total revenue to jump to $44 billion this year and $108.3 billion next year. Most of Musk's wealth comes from his 48.5% stake in SpaceX and about 20.3% of Tesla, plus large holdings in Neuralink and The Boring Company.

SpaceX's fully reusable rocket Starship, which the company is developing, succeeded for the first time in reaching Earth orbit on its 14th flight test on September 28, 2026. A vehicle combining the upper-stage spacecraft Ship 41 with the first-stage booster Booster 21 was launched, and although one of the six Raptor engines on the upper stage shut down earlier than planned during ascent, it achieved orbital insertion and released all 26 next-generation communications satellites, Starlink V3, into orbit. The original plan called for roughly six orbits of low Earth orbit at an altitude of about 275 kilometers over about 10 hours, followed by a controlled splashdown in the Pacific Ocean west of Chile, but the flight time was shortened to about three hours following the upper-stage engine malfunction. Previous flight tests of Starship and Super Heavy had deliberately remained on suborbital trajectories with safety as the priority, and the shift to true orbital flight and the demonstration of its capability as a means of transporting operational satellites mark a turning point. SpaceX has won a 2.89 billion dollar HLS development contract from NASA and aims for a crewed lunar landing on Artemis 4 in 2028 and the construction of a long-term activity base on the lunar surface.

U.S. space company SpaceX conducted a launch of Starship, the world's largest rocket, on the 28th, placing it into Earth orbit for the first time on its 14th launch. Nikkei reported the news, saying it gave momentum toward commercialization. Meanwhile, an engine problem occurred during flight, shortening a planned 10-hour mission to 3 hours. Space-related companies are likely to draw attention.

Nvidia announced an additional $150 billion share buyback authorization, bringing its total remaining authorized amount to $235 billion, which the company said it plans to use through the end of fiscal 2028. The buyback, described by panelists as potentially the largest authorization ever announced, helped lift Nvidia shares, which are up about 21% this year. Nvidia also unveiled a new AI security system called the open agent safety platform, developed with several partners including Anthropic but notably not OpenAI, in response to recent hacking incidents. CEO Jensen Huang told CNBC the platform is designed to keep agentic AI systems within minimal rights, and he said OpenAI is welcome to adopt the open-source technology. The announcements came as Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei met President Trump for a private dinner, with no headlines emerging on what was discussed. Separately, SpaceX launched Starship Flight 14, its first flight into low Earth orbit, carrying 26 Starlink V3 high-speed internet satellites; one of the rocket's six engines went out, but the mission still reached low Earth orbit. Meta introduced a new Meta enterprise platform and hired MongoDB CEO CJ Desai to run it, sending MongoDB shares sharply lower in pre-market trading. President Trump is set to roll back Biden-era fuel economy standards, cutting the 2031 fleet target from roughly 50 MPG to 34.5 MPG, and said he is looking very seriously at a diesel export ban.

SpaceX plans to launch its massive Starship rocket early Monday, aiming to send the spacecraft into orbit for the first time. According to SpaceX's website, the 75-minute launch window begins at 8:15 a.m. ET, or 7:15 a.m. local time, from the company town of Starbase, Texas. The Federal Aviation Administration told CNBC that it issued a license authorization for the SpaceX Starship Super Heavy Flight 14 launch and reentry operations on Sept. 26. With the 14th test flight of Starship, Elon Musk's aerospace and defense company also plans to deploy 26 of its new Starlink V3 satellites. Starship is critical to SpaceX's expansion plans; on SpaceX's earnings call in August, Musk said it is not out of the question that at some point Starlink will deliver a majority of the world's internet, at least in countries where the company is allowed to operate.

Rocket Lab launched its 97th Electron mission, delivering the 13th StriX satellite for Earth-monitoring constellation operator Synspective into a 559km low Earth orbit. The 'Owlright Owlright Owlright' mission lifted off from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand at 12:39 p.m. NZST on 26 September 2026. The deployment expands Synspective's synthetic aperture radar imaging constellation, which provides high-resolution, all-weather, day-and-night imaging of the Earth's surface. The flight was Rocket Lab's 18th launch this year, sustaining Electron's position as the world's most frequently-launched small-lift orbital rocket. Across a multi-year partnership, Electron has now deployed all 13 StriX satellites with 100% mission success, and another 14 launches remain on schedule to deliver the rest of Synspective's constellation by the end of the decade.

Elon Musk may be poised for a Zuckerberg-style comeback moment as Tesla prepares to debut its Roadster on October 1st in Waco, Texas, and ramps up production at its Tesla Semi factory targeting 50,000 units a year. Meanwhile, the average interest rate on a 30-year mortgage has climbed to 7.45%, its highest level in three years, pushing the monthly payment on a $500,000 mortgage to $3,479 — up from $2,995 just seven months ago, an additional $5,813 a year in mortgage interest expense for homebuyers. On the tech front, Alphabet is launching data centers in space in partnership with Planet Labs for the first time on October 1st, carrying its TPUs aboard a SpaceX booster, a move that could strengthen its position against competitors in both AI chips and driverless cars through Waymo. Bradley Tusk, a longtime tech investor and political strategist, said on the show that OpenAI has about 1 trillion4 in Capex commitments, roughly $1 trillion more than Anthropic's approximately $400 billion, and argued OpenAI and Anthropic are wildly overvalued. Tusk also praised Meta's open-source AI inference strategy as brilliant, though he said he is not a Mark Zuckerberg fan due to the harm he believes Instagram has caused to children.

Firefly Aerospace signed a multi-launch agreement with SSC Space for two Alpha rocket launches from Sweden's Esrange Space Center, marking the company's first planned orbital launch site on mainland Europe. Under the deal, signed September 9, SSC Space purchased the full payload capacity across both flights to distribute among its own government and commercial clients, with the missions targeted for no earlier than 2028 to carry Swedish national security and commercial payloads. CEO Jason Kim described the arrangement as a "launch as a franchise" model that gives NATO allies flexible orbital access while granting Firefly pricing power and operational leverage. The win builds on completed groundwork at Esrange, including a launch control center, payload processing facility, integration building, and tracking systems, with the launch pad now in its final construction stages. The agreement adds to a diversified pipeline that includes a $144 million NASA award for a Blue Ghost lunar lander, an extended Lockheed Martin deal covering up to 25 Alpha launches through 2031, a $94 million Space Force radar contract, and a spot on the $981 million NITE-STAR test and training program, alongside a 659% year-over-year Q2 revenue surge to $117.7 million and full-year guidance of $420 million to $450 million. Because the Esrange missions are not scheduled to lift off before 2028 and depend on a pad still under construction, the deal enriches forward backlog rather than near-term income statements.

Blue Origin has raised $10 billion in its first-ever outside funding round, with Jeff Bezos personally contributing a fresh $2 billion, according to details reported by the Wall Street Journal. The Amazon founder's total investment in the space company now stands at $32 billion since its founding in 2000, funded through strategic sell-offs of his Amazon stock. Valued at $140 billion, Blue Origin has opened its doors to outside investors for the first time, and additional commitments may still push the round's total higher. CEO Dave Limp is restructuring the 15,000-person workforce, enacting targeted layoffs and grounding the suborbital tourism flights to prioritize core technical advancements and critical NASA contracts. After generating $800 million in 2025, Blue Origin expects to hit $1.4 billion this year, and internally projects topping $30 billion in annual revenue by 2030.

Yuanta Securities says the space economy is entering a major turning point after the International Space Station, the backbone of off-world scientific experimentation for more than 26 years, prepares to be retired around 2030, as demand for access to space from the private sector keeps rising, especially for medical research and the development of data centers in space. This is reflected in the number of projects approved for launch to the ISS, which hit a record high of 115 projects in fiscal year 2025, with nearly 80% being commercial research projects. The transition to the era of commercial space stations is happening alongside a sharp fall in the cost of reaching space, thanks to reusable rocket technology, particularly from SpaceX. Global pharmaceutical companies such as Merck and Bristol Myers Squibb are already using low-gravity conditions to study the properties of drugs, while privately held Varda is developing autonomous vehicles for experiments or manufacturing in orbit to return products to Earth. The space economy's market value is expected to rise from 630 billion dollars in 2023 to 1.16 trillion dollars in 2030 and reach 1.79 trillion dollars in 2035, or average annual growth of 9%, which would benefit leaders in space transport such as SpaceX and Rocket Lab, as well as Redwire, which specializes in equipment and systems for space operations. Rocket Lab recently won a 266 million dollar contract from the U.S. Space Force for a missile-defense test launch mission, plus another contract worth 397 million dollars to build satellites that detect and track targets from space. Although bottom-line profit may not yet be strong in this period, the revenue trend and the value of work in hand, or backlog, are growing very strongly, reflecting robust demand. The Bloomberg Consensus sets a target price of 3.66 baht per DR, which is seen as leaving room for further upside of as much as 50%.