These are the companies to watch in space exploration

[Buster's Uncle]

These are the companies to watch in space exploration
Morgan Stanley goes beyond SpaceX and Blue Origin
MarketWatch
By Claudia Assis  Published: Dec 13, 2017 1:53 p.m. ET



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New players, demand for internet bandwidth and falling costs are poised to make the space industry less the stuff of science fiction and more of a reality, and analysts at Morgan Stanley have drafted a list of companies in the sector to watch.

Investors “can never be too early in understanding rapidly evolving topics,” the analysts said in a note Wednesday. The 90 companies highlighted are private, making space exploration an industry closed off to public investors for now, but the idea is to offer more insight, they said.

The analysts also carved out 11 sub-industries, from the better-known satellite launch to the more obscure asteroid mining and space-debris clean-up, and estimated how they break down by number of companies.





The top companies have ties to publicly traded companies: rocket company SpaceX is led by Tesla Inc. TSLA, -0.01%  Chief Executive Elon Musk, and Blue Origin, a rocket company, is owned by Amazon.com Inc. AMZN, -0.08%  Chief Executive Jeff Bezos. The two dominate the satellite launch category.

Some of the top names on Morgan Stanley’s list included Arlington, Virginia-based One Web and Reston, Virginia-based Ligado, which are involved in launching satellites to provide broadband communications; Axiom Space of Houston, Texas, which aims to build the first commercial space center by 2024; Moon Express, a Cape Canaveral, Florida-based company that is developing a robotic spacecraft; and San Francisco-based Planet, which deals in Earth imaging satellites.

In a separate note earlier this year, Morgan Stanley analysts said the global space industry was valued at about $350 billion, citing industry sources.

The analysts then estimated that the industry could grow to $1.1 trillion by 2040, although it warned that the range of potential outcomes was wide due to “significant execution risk.” At a minimum, Morgan Stanley called for growth to $600 billion over the next two decades or so, while their bull case suggested an industry value of $1.75 trillion.

Tesla shares have gained 59% in 2017, while Amazon has gained 55%. The S&P 500 SPX, -0.05%  has gained 19% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.33%  has gained 24%.


https://www.marketwatch.com/story/these-are-the-companies-to-watch-in-space-exploration-2017-12-13

[Geo]

The author didn't bother to mention non-US companies? Not that I know of any myself, but with a list of 90 a number ought to be based outside the States?

[Buster's Uncle]

Dunno.  There's no link to the Morgan Stanley report, but hard to believe the likes of Rocket Lab and ArieneSpace weren't mentioned...