Space stocks are taking off in Tuesday’s pre-market trading after Jeff Bezos said he would be joining the first crewed flight of the New Shepard, the rocket ship produced by his space company, Blue Origin. Shares of Virgin Galactic (NYSE:SPCE) and space SPAC merger partner Holicity (NASDAQ:HOL) were up 4.3% and 3.5% respectively.
Bezos is scheduled to retire as CEO of Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) just days ahead of the July 20 launch, on which his younger brother, Mark Bezos, will join him.
Meanwhile, Holicity’s planned merger with Astra Space is moving ahead with a special meeting of shareholders now scheduled for June 30, according to a company announcement yesterday. “We are pleased to announce this significant milestone for our transaction,” said Craig McCaw, chairman and CEO of Holicity.
“Astra continues to make progress creating a space platform that fulfills the need of simple and accessible launches to help fuel the trillion dollar-plus space economy and launch a new generation of services to enhance our lives,” McCaw said.
With over 50 launches under contract, Astra expects to begin delivering customer payloads into low Earth orbit in Summer 2021, moving to monthly, biweekly, weekly and daily launches by 2025.
Investors Gaining Confidence in Space Stocks
Despite the volatility in SPCE stock and HOL shares, investors appear to be gaining confidence in the promise of space tourism and commercialization.
To be sure, any bad news hits hard, as Virgin Galactic investors have experienced over the past nine months. But good news is a tide that lifts all stocks.
That is evident in InvestorPlace analyst Luke Lango’s latest take on SPCE stock, which he said earlier this week, “finds itself at the epicenter of four huge trends in the market,” all of which have “staying power.”
“Shares of the commercial space tourism company have already doubled over the past two weeks, since the company’s successful May test flight,” he wrote. “But I think this rally simply marks the beginning of a big breakout to new all-time highs.”
On the date of publication, Robert Lakin did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.
InvestorPlace contributor Robert Lakin is a veteran financial writer and editor, including previous stints with Bloomberg News and as a buyside equity research editor. His Substack newsletter, TLV Strategist, covers the Israel business scene.
