Rocket Lab Leads Space Rally With 57% Gain Following SpaceX IPO Report

SpaceX, Elon Musk's rocket company, might be the most hotly anticipated initial public offering (IPO) in decades. The company is valued at potentially over $1 trillion, which would also make it one of the largest IPOs in history.

The company is expected to raise $40 billion to $80 billion in the IPO, which would eclipse the previous record holder, Saudi Aramco, which raised $29 billion in its 2020 offering.

But when news of the IPO broke in late March, it also sent a shockwave through companies involved in the space economy, and many stocks engaged in it popped the day the news broke.

Image source: Getty Images.

The start of a moonshot?

AST SpaceMobile and Rocket Lab (NASDAQ: RKLB) both went up 10%, York Space Systems was up 5%, and Firefly Aerospace jumped 16%. That's not surprising; stocks move on headlines all the time. What did surprise me is that the rally had some real legs under it.

All of those stocks except for AST SpaceMobile continued the rally over the past roughly two months since the SpaceX news dropped.

York Space is up 40% since March 25, the day the IPO was reported. Rocket Lab is up 57% since then. Firefly Aerospace is up 36%, and Intuitive Machines, a company with several NASA contracts, is up 46% since March 25.

The rally's resilience proves that the space economy is here, and once SpaceX goes public, the market will be taking space stocks more seriously than ever before.

There's a Starman investing in the sky

On April 13, more good news for space stocks broke when Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas mapped out 60 publicly traded space-related stocks dubbed the "Space 60." It includes companies ranging from materials companies to rocket manufacturers.

Firefly Aerospace is on the list, so are Intuitive Machines and York Space Systems among others. I have no doubt that SpaceX will be on that list as well once it has its IPO.

While the Space 60 is just a curated list of stocks right now, it does show that institutions like Morgan Stanley are beginning to take space stocks more seriously. The SpaceX IPO is slated for July 2026, so it's still a few months until investors can open a position in the company.

Until that time, though, the Space 60 list can provide a blueprint and some direction to any additional space investments someone might want to make. And, just shy of half, 24 of the Space 60 stocks have more than doubled in value over the past year.

The SpaceX IPO being both confirmed and not too far off has caused a surge of interest in space stocks. And when the IPO comes, I anticipate the sustained rally smaller space stocks have gone on over the past few weeks will accelerate. Invest accordingly.

James Hires has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends AST SpaceMobile, Intuitive Machines, and Rocket Lab. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.