Missed Out On The SpaceX IPO? Buy These Industrial Giants Instead.

Space Exploration Technologies' (NASDAQ: SPCX) IPO was the hottest ticket of the year, and if you didn't get a piece, the fear of missing out is real.

But here's something the frenzy overlooked: You don't need SpaceX to invest in space. A handful of established industrial giants are cashing in on the same boom, and they come with steadier businesses and, in most cases, a dividend check while you wait. There's a powerful tailwind behind them, too -- the U.S. government's push to build a space-based missile shield known as Golden Dome, which is funneling tens of billions of dollars toward satellites, sensors, and rockets.

1. Lockheed Martin: The space and defense anchor

Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) is about as close to a one-stop shop for national-security space as you'll find. It builds satellites, missile-warning systems, and the Orion crew capsule, and late last year it won a roughly $1.1 billion award to deliver 18 missile-tracking satellites for the Space Force. It's also positioned at the center of the Golden Dome effort.

This is the blue chip way to own the government side of the space race.

2. Northrop Grumman: Satellites and the propulsion nobody sees

Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC) is deep in the same satellite constellations, having won its own multi-hundred-million-dollar Space Force awards, with a batch of its data-relay satellites slated to begin launching this year.

What I find underappreciated is its propulsion business: Northrop makes solid rocket motors that power missiles and launch vehicles across the industry, so it profits no matter whose rocket flies.

3. L3Harris Technologies: The sensor specialist

L3Harris Technologies (NYSE: LHX) rounds out the group that split the Space Force's latest missile-tracking satellite contract, and its real strength lies in the sensors and payloads that enable those satellites to actually spot a threat. The company has been sharpening its focus lately, agreeing to sell a majority stake in its space-propulsion arm to concentrate on the electronics and space systems where it has an edge. For a Golden Dome built on detection, that's a smart place to sit.

4. RTX: Missiles, sensors, and a missile-defense windfall

RTX (NYSE: RTX), parent company of Raytheon and Collins Aerospace, is one of the largest defense contractors on Earth, and missile defense is squarely in its wheelhouse. The interceptors and radars that would form the lower layers of a system like Golden Dome are the kind of hardware RTX has made for decades. Its aerospace arm also supplies components across satellites and spacecraft, giving it broad, if less pure, space exposure.

Image source: Getty Images.

5. Boeing: The direct launch competitor

Boeing (NYSE: BA) is the wild card here, and I'll be candid: It's the most troubled company on this list. But it co-owns United Launch Alliance, whose Vulcan rocket competes head-to-head with SpaceX for the most sensitive national-security launches, and it retains a large defense and space portfolio.

If you believe the government wants more than one launch provider, and it clearly does, Boeing offers direct exposure to that rivalry, provided you can stomach its ongoing turnaround risk.

The takeaway worth understanding

Now the honest counterweight: None of these companies is a substitute for SpaceX in terms of growth. They're large, mature businesses where space is only one slice of the pie, so a satellite win rarely moves the whole stock the way it might for a pure play.

Their fortunes also lean heavily on government budgets, and programs like Golden Dome depend on appropriations that politics can slow, shrink, or reroute. Defense primes can also trade at rich valuations when geopolitical worries run hot, as they do now.

If you're chasing SpaceX-style rocket-ship returns, these steady industrials won't scratch that itch. But if what you actually wanted was durable exposure to the money pouring into space and missile defense, this group delivers it without the hype.

My honest suggestion is to treat them as the sensible, lower-drama way to invest in the theme and lean toward the names with the clearest space and Golden Dome tailwinds rather than buying all five indiscriminately.

Micah Zimmerman has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Boeing, L3Harris Technologies, and RTX. The Motley Fool recommends Lockheed Martin. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.