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Welcome back to the rundown for another weekend deep dive. Today we are talking about NASA's return to the moon and what it means for investors. As I'm recording this, four astronauts are flying through space on their way back to Earth after flying around the moon for the first time in over 50 years as part of NASA's Artemis 2 mission. And this mission has captured the attention of the world and also investors. Space was already one of the hottest investing sectors and the Artemis 2 mission has only added to the hype. So in today, today's episode, we'll break down the Artemis 2 mission. Why it matters, the booming space economy, what's driving it, a few space talks worth knowing about and what's coming Next, including the SpaceX IPO and NASA's plans to actually land astronauts on the moon. We got a great one for you today. Let's dive in. The last time that humans went anywhere near the moon was December of 1972, but that changed this month. Now this all started in 2017. NASA began the Artemis program and started planning a return of humans to the moon for new scientific discoveries and economic opportunities. The first Artemis mission was launched back in November of 2022. It was a 25 day uncrewed mission that traveled around the moon and served as a test for the current Artemis 2 mission. Fast forward three and a half years and Artemis 2 launched on April 1, sending four astronauts on a 10 day trip called around the Moon and Back. The crew included NASA astronauts Reed Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen. The Orion spacecraft carrying the crew went more than a quarter million miles away from Earth, officially breaking the record for the farthest humans have traveled from Earth, last set by Apollo 13 back in 1970. And the crew successfully splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on April 10. In fact, I had to pause the recording of this deep dive to watch that splashdown live, which was really cool. Now, the Artemis 2 mission didn't land land astronauts on the moon. It was a flyby mission. But the information gained from this mission will help NASA prepare for future moon landing missions, which is expected to happen sometime in 2028 as part of the Artemis 4 mission. And all this hype around space and future moon landings has caught the attention of Wall Street. So let's talk about the growing space economy and why it matters for investors. Here's the thing that most people don't realize. Space is already an important part of the global economy. And every time you open up Google Maps or order Uber or check the weather or Even swipe your credit card, you're using space technology like GPS satellites and satellite imagery and satellite communication. This stuff powers so much of modern life that we don't even think about it anymore. According to the Space foundation, the global space economy totaled $613 billion in 2025. And nearly 400,000 people are employed in space related jobs. But this space, no pun intended, is about to get much bigger. The consulting firm McKenzie estimates the space economy could reach $1.8 trillion by 2035. That's nearly 3x from where it is today. And a big reason for that is that space launches have gotten so much cheaper. Thanks to companies like SpaceX and the reusable Falcon 9 rockets, the cost of getting a kilogram of payload into orbit has dropped from about $15,000 in 2008 to to under $1,000 as of 2025. That's a 95% drop in price in 17 years. And according to Ark Invest, SpaceX's next generation Starship rocket could bring that cost down to just under $100 per kilogram at scale. So think about what that could mean. Because when it costs $15,000 per kilogram, only governments and massive defense contractors could afford to do stuff in space. But now that the cost are $1,000 per kg and getting cheaper every year, so suddenly startups can run experiments in orbit and create new businesses and services. This is kind of what happened with the Internet. When bandwidth was expensive, only big corporations could afford it. But when it got cheaper, more and more people came online. And now some of our biggest companies today are Internet companies. Space could follow a similar trajectory. Now look, the government will continue to play a key role here. Government agencies all over the world remain key customers for the core space industry, especially for high end systems and exploration, defense and early stage lunar infrastructure. The Artemis missions are a great example of that. So between the cheaper launches and the growing commercial demand and increased government investment, the space economy is hitting an inflection point. And there are a handful of publicly traded stocks that are in position to ride this wave. So let's talk about some of those names. You know, there are a bunch of space related stocks out there these days, but we're going to highlight three of them. First up, let's talk about Planet Labs. Planet Labs is a satellite imaging company. They operate hundreds of satellites in space that spend all day taking high res pictures of the Earth's surface. When I say high res, I mean I'm talking about these satellites can identify an object as small as 15 centimeters. You can literally track how a war is developing. You can monitor gold mine production or watch crop health change in real time. And that kind of data has become hot commodity. Defense contractors, intelligence agencies, agricultural companies, and hedge funds organizations are all paying top dollar for it. Planet Lab's revenues grew to $244 million last fiscal year. They have a backlog of about $900 million. Moving forward, the company is now also layering in AI on top of its data platform to help clients make faster and smarter decisions based on what the satellites are seeing. So if satellite data continues to become essential for businesses here on Earth, Planet Labs will be a prime spot to take advantage. The stock has already gone up nearly 6, 70% this year. Next up, let's talk about Intuitive Machines. Intuitive Machines became a household name in the space community after it successfully became the first commercial company to land and operate a spacecraft on the moon back in 2024. They followed that up by landing on the lunar South Pole, which is the southernmost moon landing in history. See, Intuitive's focus is on lunar exploration and infrastructure, which is obviously on everyone's mind right now with the Artemis mission. In fact, they're going after NASA's contracts for lunar deployment. Beyond that, they also acquired a satellite manufacturing company that aims to deploy communication satellites around the moon. So they're trying to like build the Internet and communication platform for the moon. The stock has gone up 30% this year and it's up nearly 17% since the Artemis 2 mission launched on April 1. Finally, let's talk about Firefly Aerospace. Firefly is a direct competitor to Intuitive Machines and they have their own lunar lander called Blue Ghost. And they've already won a NASA contract for moon missions. Now what sets Firefly apart is that they also build their own rockets. They have a small launch vehicle called Alpha and a medium class rocket called Eclipse in development. Firefly stock has gone up 58% this year and it's up more than 25% since the Artemis 2 mission launched on April 1st. Now those are just three names right there. And I want to be clear, like these stocks are speculative. You know, these are small pre profit companies in an emerging industry. And as with every industry, there are going to be some winners and many, many losers. But now let's talk about a company that many people consider to have a monopoly in space. And they're not even publicly traded yet. The biggest space event this year might not be this Artemis 2 mission. It might actually be the SpaceX IPO. Elon Musk's space company, SpaceX confidentially filed for an IPO on April 1st, which was the same day as the Artemis 2 launch, which is kind of poetic. Now SpaceX is looking to raise $75 billion in the IPO and targeting a valuation north of $1.75 trillion. This would make SpaceX the largest IPO in history. I mean, a $1.75 trillion valuation would instantly make SpaceX one of the most valuable publicly traded companies in the world. It'd be even more valuable than Elon's other company, Tesla. Now personally, I'm really curious to see what SpaceX's financials look like. And since they confidentially filed for an ipo, we won't see the numbers until closer to the IPO date, which is rumored to be sometime in June. There's a lot of hype around the ipo and it's helping push up other space stocks in the process. What I do find interesting though is that SpaceX was not involved in the Artemis 2 mission at all. In fact, the three main companies involved in the Artemis 2 mission were Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman. And these companies haven't gotten the same level of hype as a native space company has. In fact, Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin stock have mostly been flat since the mission launched. Wall street seems to be more enthusiastic about the up and coming disruptors and not the incumbents. And you know, I wonder if that ends up being the right call long term. So what's my take here? Well, I just want to start off by saying that space is cool and I'm glad that we're doing cool space stuff again. You know, watching the Artemis 2 launch with my kids and seeing all the high res pictures of the moon is awesome. And I can't wait for astronauts to actually land on the moon in 2028. But I gotta say as an investor, I'm still hesitant to jump head first into space stocks. A lot of these space stocks are still very speculative and pre profit. I mean, even the SpaceX IPO at a $1.75 trillion valuation seems frothy to me. But look, the trend is undeniable that space is the next frontier in area of growth. But personally I'm just waiting for some of the hype to cool off before jumping in as an investor. In the meantime, I can't wait to watch more rocket launches and space missions from NASA and all these space companies working on this stuff. Well, all right guys, that's it for today's weekend deep dive. Hope you guys enjoyed that one. If you did, let me know in the comments on Spotify or YouTube on if you're excited about the SpaceX IPO, if you plan to invest in it, do you own any other space stocks? Drop your comments on Spotify and YouTube and while you're there, consider giving us a five star rating. Can you know all that engagement really does help us out and it helps other people find the show. Thank you guys again for listening, watching and commenting. Shout out to Mike and Connor for all the work behind the scenes and we'll see you guys back here tomorrow.
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