NASA Sends Astronauts Around the Moon: Space Stocks Rise on Artemis II Launch

TLDR

• NASA’s Artemis II launches today, sending 4 astronauts on a 10-day trip around the moon
• The Orion spacecraft is built by Lockheed Martin; the SLS rocket by Boeing and Northrop Grumman
• Space stocks like Rocket Lab are rising on the back of increased space activity
• SpaceX is valued at $1.3 trillion and planning an IPO that could raise up to $75 billion
• NASA has spent over $55 billion on SLS and Orion combined; SpaceX built its entire business on about $12 billion

NASA launched its Artemis II mission on Wednesday, sending four astronauts on a 10-day journey around the moon. The launch window opened at 6:24 p.m. EDT from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The crew includes NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, along with Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen. The four will travel nearly 700,000 miles in total — farther from Earth than any humans have ever traveled.

The mission will surpass the distance record set by Apollo 13, which was forced to abort its lunar landing after an onboard explosion. No humans have traveled beyond Earth orbit since 1972.

The Orion spacecraft carrying the crew was built by Lockheed Martin and Airbus. Components and systems for Orion were also supplied by Northrop Grumman, L3Harris Technologies, and Honeywell.

The spacecraft sits atop NASA’s 322-foot Space Launch System rocket. The SLS was developed primarily by Boeing and Northrop Grumman. NASA has spent more than $30 billion on the rocket and another $25 billion on Orion.

The mission had previously been delayed after a hydrogen leak forced engineers to roll the rocket back for inspection. Launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson said weather conditions looked favorable heading into Wednesday’s countdown.

Space Stocks React

Rocket Lab shares rose nearly 12% on Wednesday. Redwire was up 3.8% in premarket trading after reminding investors its imaging and navigation technology is part of the Artemis II mission.

Rocket Lab USA, Inc., RKLB

A group of six space stocks — including Rocket Lab, AST SpaceMobile, Intuitive Machines, Firefly Aerospace, York Space Systems, and Redwire — have a combined market value of $81 billion. That is roughly 23 times estimated 2026 sales, though those sales are expected to roughly double this year.

The S&P 500 and Dow Jones futures were both up about 0.5% on Wednesday morning.

SpaceX IPO Looms

SpaceX accounts for more than half of all orbital launches globally. Its Starlink broadband service has over 10,000 satellites in orbit and more than 10 million subscribers.

The company is currently valued at around $1.3 trillion. It is planning an IPO that could raise up to $75 billion, which would be a record for a U.S. company.

SpaceX has raised an estimated $12 billion over its entire corporate life — a fraction of what NASA spent on SLS and Orion alone.

What Comes Next

Artemis III is planned for 2027 and will test lunar landers built by SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin. Artemis IV, targeting 2028, is intended to be the first U.S. moon landing since 1972.

NASA’s goal is to establish a sustained human presence near the moon’s south pole. China is also pursuing a crewed lunar landing, which has added urgency to the U.S. timeline.

The Artemis II crew is scheduled to manually operate the spacecraft several hours into flight to test its handling before the longer journey ahead.

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