Thanks to private companies and reusable technology, space travel has never been more affordable
According to Kaylie Pferten, this has caused something of a gold rush in related industries.
In recent weeks, Greenland's future has dominated the news, but the real actionboth military and commercialis increasingly occurring in space, hundreds or even hundreds of thousands of miles above Earth. According to Jeff Thornburg, CEO of Portal Space Systems, "over the decades that I've been working in the industry, we've shifted from focusing on getting rockets and satellites into space, to trying to find ways to use them once they are there." Businesses in the space industry are currently experiencing a gold rush, with everyone from defense organizations to some of the biggest private companies in the world vying for their business. Susana Cruz Ramirez, a research analyst at Panmure Liberum, predicts that the industry will be worth more than £1 trillion by 2032.
What is causing the recent surge in commercial space?
According to Heather Pringle, a former commander of the US Air Force Research Laboratory and current CEO of Space Foundation, the primary cause of the boom in the private space industry is that it is now simpler to enter space thanks to the emergence of private companies that conduct frequent flights using reusable technology and at lower costs. "SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Rocket Lab are three of the biggest companies that have established their own capabilities to launch, deliver payloads, have their launch vehicles re-enter Earth's atmosphere, be recovered, and be reused to launch again. The "
According to Pringle, the availability of reusable rockets in particular has been a "game changer" for the industry in terms of cost savings. It can now be placed into low Earth orbit for £3,000 per pound, if not less, than what the US space shuttle once carried for £30,000 per pound (or more). In terms of launch frequency and speed, the development of inexpensive, reusable rockets has also had a "dramatic impact." Every 34 hours in 2024, a rocket was launched somewhere in the world. In 2025, that rate increased to once every 27 hours. According to Pringle, there are no indications that these trends will slow down. Indeed, in the coming years, they will pick up speed.
The fact that satellites have been getting smaller is another factor contributing to the falling cost of transportation. According to Paul Thomas, global space innovation and energy innovation lead at Accenture, "just as Apple and Samsung have been able to create iPads, iPhones, and other smart devices, companies have worked out how to make miniature satellites that are just as powerful as traditional satellites, but weigh much less." All of this has made it possible for a much greater number of businesses to afford the cost of sending a satellite into orbit.
According to Thomas, the industry is also greatly benefiting from the development of AI and machine learning. Due to these advancements, satellites are now more autonomous and require less human intervention to function. The most sophisticated satellites are "capable of automatically adjusting their behavior and filtering out noise to detect anomalies." The amount of data that businesses, organizations, and individuals need has also significantly increased as a result of the AI revolution. "A rapid commercialisation of space" is the result of all these developments.
Protection in space.
The government still plays a significant role as a consumer, particularly when it comes to defense, even though there has been a significant shift in the supply of space services from the public to the private sector. "We were just focused on doing work for the civilian side of the industry" when Scotland-based launch vehicle manufacturer and operator Skyrora was founded in 2017, according to Alan Thompson, director of government affairs. However, "the military has an increasing interest in deploying assets in space" has become more evident over the last ten years.
However, the military and defense sector simply lacks the time or capacity to catch up because it is joining the party rather late. Therefore, it will likely form joint ventures or outsourcing partnerships with specialized space companies. Then, according to Thompson, Skyrora and several similar companies will "see an increasing defense angle to what we are doing over the next few years." Additionally, the US won't be the only source of demand. He claims that governments all over the world are trying to become less reliant on American companies and launch locations. According to Ramirez, Europe in particular will aim to strengthen its autonomous space capabilities.
Although the possibility of geopolitical tensions spreading into space is disheartening, the decline in launch costs has also prompted a wider range of governments to enter space with more commercial goals. "More and more space agencies are emerging around the world," according to Voyager Space Holdings CEO Dylan Taylor. There are currently about 75 space agencies worldwide, compared to only 1520 even twenty years ago. Budgets for already-existing space agencies have increased concurrently.
Given the abundance of issues on Earth, that expenditure may be controversial. According to Taylor, about half of those 75 space agencies have never had an astronaut. However, the majority of them "are keen to mint one" because, in general, having your own person in space can be a wise investment. The praise received for sending someone into space "can be an important motivating tool" in terms of inspiring young people to pursue STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) studies back home, for instance.
The military is interested in space, but why?
The military's growing interest in space is partly due to the fact that a large portion of Earth's commercial activity depends on space activities. According to a 2023 London Economics study, the UK economy alone would lose £7.6 billion if the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), which powers GPS and other navigational aids, were to go down for just seven days.
The communications sector is another important commercial application. As Nat Edington of Filtronic notes, ground-based systems are still unable to provide fully comprehensive broadband services in remote areas. A satellite-based system, on the other hand, could accomplish this. Over time, terrestrial networks should establish themselves in space. This will initially take the shape of a hybrid system in which low-Earth orbit (LEO) space networks will coexist with terrestrial networks. However, "most broadband connectivity will end up" coming from space "as we come to the end of this decade."
According to Mark Boggett of Seraphim Space, the proliferation of satellites in space and the fact that Earth-space communication "has moved from the realm of governments to the mass market" mean that businesses are now producing and utilizing an "incredible amount" of data about what's happening on Earth. "You can now use data from space to identify the performance of crops and determine whether they are infected with pests, or need more nutrition" is how this is expected to revolutionize agriculture.
This will be advantageous to more than just farmers. According to Boggett, "this imaging and data revolution" will have an impact on practically every industry you can think of, including real estate, logistics, and oil and gas. For instance, one of the businesses Seraphim has invested in, Satellite View, "has one of the world's most advanced infrared cameras, which enables it to look down from space and determine whether there are people in individual buildings, as well as the overall insulation level of the building and its contribution to global warming."
The last frontier in terms of economics is space.
Moving at least some economic activity into space itself is also gaining traction. According to Ramirez, the space industry has advanced in three stages thus far: "the institutional interest in the space race in the 1950s and 1960s, the development of broadcasting satellites in the 1970s and 1980s, and the creation of low-cost launches and transportation by Elon Musk" in the present. Building an economy in space will be the fourth wave. According to her, it will be "increasingly viable to relocate some of the more polluting sectors upwards" due to the rapidly declining cost of material transportation in space. The mining sector and the data centers that drive the AI revolution rank first on Ramirez's list of activities that need to be relocated.
The problem of relocating data centers to space will be rather simple. According to partner Jon Lusczakoski of AE Industrial Partners, "we already know how to get all the infrastructure up there, and the low temperatures will provide a free source of cooling." But it will be more difficult to mine asteroids. "We've demonstrated that we can reach asteroids, but it will be more difficult to return the material to Earth at a rate that is profitable. A "
However, discussions about mining the moon are undoubtedly still going on, even if asteroid mining isn't going to happen right away. According to Lusczakoski, Firefly Aerospace, the first commercial company to successfully land on the moon and one of AE Industrials' portfolio companies, "has been approached by companies that want to move mining assets to the moon." "People are undoubtedly attempting to make the numbers work, but it needs the proper assets to be economical. The "
SpaceX makes its stock market debut.
Elon Musk is the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX.
The space industry undoubtedly has a bright future, but the rumored initial public offering (IPO) of Elon Musk's SpaceX sometime this year is one significant near-term catalyst that could change things in the coming months. About six weeks ago, Musk made a public appearance to confirm that this would occur, calling the reports "accurate." Nick Flitterman of Portland Advisers acknowledges that, like many others in the field, he has conflicting opinions about the contentious businessman. He and others believe that "having lots of money and power concentrated in one persons' hands" is a "major concern."
Even so, this could benefit the industry. Governments and businesses will "create new opportunities" on their own if they choose not to rely entirely on Starlink and SpaceX. In any event, Musk has contributed significantly to "getting people talking" about the industry over the previous 20 years; the IPO may serve as a "major catalyst" for the sector, particularly in terms of increasing awareness of the sector as a whole. According to Flitterman, "as the higher the profile of space, the more money will flow into it," this could be advantageous.
According to Jeff Thornburg of Portal Space Systems, a SpaceX IPO could be a "major inflection point" if Musk's business is valued at more than £1 trillion. It might turn out to be a much larger version of the 1995 Netscape IPO, which is generally regarded as the beginning of the .com era. Aside from that, early-stage investors who have invested in the sector and "have been waiting for a major flotation for a long time to demonstrate that their investment was justified" will feel validated by a SpaceX IPO.
Venture capitalists are not the only ones who will applaud a successful SpaceX IPO. In recent years, Musk's company has produced a number of alumni, such as Thornburg, who worked at SpaceX before starting their own space firms. This should contribute to the development of "the next generation of tech companies, start-up founders and investors" when combined with the enormous sum of money made from the IPO. According to Thornburg, working or investing in the industry is "exciting" right now.
Use an ETF to follow the space boom.
Exchange-traded funds (ETFs), like the VanEck Space Innovators UCITS ETF (LSE: JEDG), are likely the simplest way to invest in the space industry. This follows the MVIS Global Space Industry index, which highlights the sector's biggest and most liquid listed businesses. The two biggest holdings in the ETF's 25 holdings are satellite imaging firm Planet Labs and launch services provider Rocket Lab Corp. Overall, the holdings' trailing price/earnings (p/e) ratio is 25, and the fund's total expense ratioa gauge of all fund management and operating costsis 0.55 percent, which is appropriate for such a specialized ETF.
Seraphim VC is a well-known leader in the venture capital industry. The Seraphim Space Investment Trust (LSE: SSIT) is the most accessible fund for regular investors among the funds that Seraphim has introduced. It offers a vast array of cutting-edge services from unlisted businesses. ICEYE, a small satellite provider, is the biggest of these and could launch soon. D-Orbit, which offers a "space-taxi" servicethat is, rockets that travel inside a larger SpaceX rocket and cover the final portion of the journeyis another intriguing business in the funds' holdings. It is one of the top businesses developing the concept of space-based data centers. The trust is currently trading at a premium of about 24 percent to its net asset value after seeing a sharp increase in price in recent weeks.
Four listed companies that show promise for space investments.
AST SpaceMobile (Nasdaq: AST) is one of Seraphims' portfolio's few listed businesses. By offering cell phone services from its "cell towers in the sky"which include the biggest satellite ever launched into space and have the power of thirty land-based towersAST SpaceMobile competes with Starlink. Although the business hasn't yet made a profit, it has already built connections with significant mobile network providers like AT&T, Vodafone, and Verizon. By utilizing AST to cover the gaps in their terrestrial network coverage, these agreements should enable the operators to enter new markets without having to deploy physical assets.
Voyager Technologies (NYSE: VOYG) is another business that is no longer in Seraphim's portfolio but in which Seraphim was an early investor prior to its 2025 IPO. The two divisions that make up Voyager are the space solutions division, which is currently engaged in a joint venture to construct the International Space Station's replacement, and the military division, which assists in operating Golden Dome, the US missile defense shield. Similar to AST, Voyager Technologies is currently losing money but plans to turn a profit by 2027.
Filtronic (Aim: FTC) is a London-listed company worth taking into consideration. It was first established in 1977 at the University of Leeds and offers signal amplification technology that facilitates communication between satellites in space and people on the ground. Consequently, the company has benefited greatly from the sharp rise in the number of satellites in orbit. Its earnings per share have increased more than tenfold since 2022, and its revenue has already tripled between 2021 and 2025. This justifies the shares' valuation at 52 times 2027 earnings.
SES (Paris: SESG) is one European satellite provider Ramirez enjoys. SES now has one of the biggest fleets of communication satellites in the world after merging with rival Intelsat last year. Ramirez is especially pleased that SES is now concentrating on obtaining government customs. Satellite internet adoption is predicted to "accelerate across government, maritime, and aviation segments, driven by the need for remote connectivity and national security priorities." While the majority of space industry listed companies are either losing money or trading at exorbitant valuations, SES is trading at a comparatively low 20.5 times 2026 earnings.
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