Rockets

SpaceX

S

Active

Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) designs, manufactures, and launches reusable rockets and spacecraft. The company operates Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy, Dragon, Starlink, and the government-focused Starshield line while continuing to develop Starship for high-cadence heavy-lift missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. Starlink crossed 12 million customers across 160+ countries on June 4, 2026 and the constellation now exceeds 10,400 working satellites in orbit. Following the February 2026 xAI merger, SpaceX also operates the Memphis Colossus 1 supercomputer as an AI hyperscaler — disclosing roughly $70B+ of contracted compute revenue across an Anthropic deal ($1.25B/month through May 2029) and a Google deal ($920M/month from October 2026 through June 2029). SpaceX completed the largest IPO in history on June 12, 2026, debuting on Nasdaq under ticker SPCX at its fixed $135-per-share price for a roughly $1.77 trillion valuation and about $75B in proceeds, with Elon Musk retaining ~82% voting control. The first Starship V3 completed a full-duration suborbital test flight (Flight 12) on May 22, 2026.

CASC

S

State-Owned (SASAC)

China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) is the state-owned prime contractor for China's space program and the world's most prolific launch organization by missions flown. Wholly owned by the central government through SASAC, it develops and operates the Long March (Changzheng) rocket family — which flew its 650th cumulative mission on June 11, 2026 — along with the Shenzhou crewed spacecraft, Tianzhou cargo vehicles, the Tiangong space station, BeiDou navigation and GuoWang broadband satellites, the Chang'e lunar and Tianwen planetary probes, and China's strategic missiles. After a national-record 73 launches in 2025, CASC is targeting over 100 launches in 2026 amid an industry-wide national push toward ~140, debuted the partially reusable Long March 12B in June 2026, and saw its Tianwen-2 probe reach the quasi-moon asteroid Kamo'oalewa on June 7, 2026. On July 10, 2026 it made China the second nation ever to recover an orbital rocket first stage, when the new single-stick, partially reusable Long March 10B flew its maiden mission from Hainan and captured its booster in a sea-based net — a landmark step toward closing the reusability gap with SpaceX. It is preparing to fly Chang'e 7 to the lunar south pole no earlier than August 2026 while advancing the triple-core Long March 10 toward a crewed Moon landing before 2030.

Rocket Lab

A

Public (NASDAQ: RKLB)

Rocket Lab is an end-to-end space company spanning launch, hypersonic test launch, spacecraft, payloads, satellite components, and now laser optical communications and space robotics. Electron remains the second most frequently launched U.S. rocket — Rocket Lab reached 92 missions with the July 1, 2026 'Grain Goddess' launch of iQPS' QPS-SAR-13 radar satellite, putting it on track for a record year and its 100th launch — and Rocket Lab is developing the medium-lift Neutron rocket for constellation, national-security, and exploration missions, with first launch still targeted for Q4 2026. The company posted record Q1 2026 revenue of $200.3M and backlog above $2.2B, completed the $155.3M Mynaric acquisition in April 2026 to add laser comms and a European footprint, and closed the Motiv Space Systems robotics acquisition in May 2026 to bring Mars-proven robotics in-house. On May 27, 2026 Rocket Lab cleared the System Requirements Review for the Space Development Agency's $816M Tracking Layer Tranche 3 missile-defense constellation, taking total SDA awards above $1.3B, and on June 22, 2026 the company joined the Nasdaq-100 Index. On June 29, 2026 Rocket Lab announced its largest-ever deal — an agreement to acquire satellite-communications operator Iridium Communications for about $8B in cash and stock ($54.00/share, roughly half cash and half Rocket Lab stock), adding an operational 66-satellite L-band constellation, ~2.55M subscribers, $871M of 2025 revenue, and globally harmonized spectrum, with the transaction expected to close in mid-2027.

Blue Origin

A

Active

Blue Origin is a privately held aerospace company founded by Jeff Bezos that develops reusable launch vehicles, rocket engines, lunar landers, in-space mobility systems, and satellite communications infrastructure. Its current programs span the New Shepard suborbital system, the New Glenn heavy-lift rocket, the BE-4 engine family that also powers ULA's Vulcan, the Blue Moon lunar lander family, the Blue Ring spacecraft platform, and the TeraWave network. The FAA closed its NG-3 mishap investigation and lifted the New Glenn grounding on May 22, 2026 — pinning the BlueBird 7 deployment failure on a cryogenic leak that froze a hydraulic line — but six days later, on May 28, a New Glenn exploded during a hotfire at Cape Canaveral's LC-36, destroying the transporter-erector at Blue Origin's only New Glenn pad. CEO Dave Limp said on June 2, 2026 that the rocket will fly again before year-end via an alternative vertical assembly path, with the propellant farm, water tower, a second flight-ready booster, and three upper stages intact; the Blue Moon MK1 'Endurance' cargo lunar lander has completed thermal vacuum testing at NASA Johnson and is being prepared for a launch later in 2026. Reporting in mid-May 2026 also revealed that Blue Origin is weighing its first-ever outside fundraising — Capstone Partners pegs 2026 spend at ~$4.8B against ~$28B of cumulative Bezos investment — as Limp targets a future cadence of about 100 launches a year.

Firefly Aerospace

A

Public (NASDAQ: FLY)

Firefly Aerospace is a public space and defense company that launches the Alpha small-lift rocket, is co-developing the Eclipse medium-lift vehicle with Northrop Grumman, flies Blue Ghost lunar landers, and builds Elytra orbital vehicles for maneuvering, communications, imaging, and other cislunar services. After becoming the first commercial company to complete a fully successful Moon landing, Firefly expanded further into defense software and data systems through its SciTec acquisition, which won a U.S. Space Force Space-Based Interceptor OTA agreement in May 2026 and a $5.5M Air Force CBC2 data-fusion option in June 2026 as part of the Golden Dome architecture. Q1 2026 revenue was $80.9M against $1.3B of backlog, Firefly doubled its Cedar Park campus to 144,000 sq ft to industrialize Blue Ghost and Elytra production, closed a 12M-share follow-on at $48/share on June 1, 2026, and — per June 23, 2026 Reuters reporting — is set to secure a ~$110M EXIM loan to fund further Texas production expansion as it prepares the first full Alpha Block II flight (Flight 8) for late summer 2026. In July 2026 Firefly also won a $13M NASA JPL subcontract — the first out of its new Gloworks innovation lab — to build the aeroshell for NASA's SkyFall Mars helicopter mission, extending it into planetary entry-descent-and-landing hardware.

Stoke Space

A

Active

Stoke Space is a Kent, Washington rocket company developing Nova, a fully and rapidly reusable medium-lift launch vehicle built for low-cost, on-demand transport to, through, and from space. Its architecture pairs a full-flow staged-combustion first stage with a reusable upper stage whose actively cooled metallic heat shield is integrated into the engine, enabling downmass capability, high-energy missions, and minimal-refurbishment reentry. Backed by $1.34 billion raised to date (including an $860M Series D) and a spot in the U.S. Space Force's NSSL Phase 3 Lane 1 pool, Stoke completed proto-qualification of Nova's first stage in June 2026 (46 structural verification tests at Moses Lake) and is finishing activation of the rebuilt Space Launch Complex 14 at Cape Canaveral ahead of Nova's first orbital flight, targeted for late 2026. In July 2026 former OpenAI chief product officer Kevin Weil — an early Stoke investor — joined the board of directors, and NASA selected Stoke for a Space Technology Mission Directorate collaboration with Ames Research Center to mature Nova's reusable upper-stage entry, descent, and landing (EDL) technologies.

LandSpace

A

Private (Shanghai STAR Market IPO filed)

LandSpace (Beijing LandSpace Technology) is China's leading commercial rocket company. In July 2023 its methane-liquid oxygen Zhuque-2 became the first methalox rocket in the world to reach orbit, and the company now flies the upgraded Zhuque-2E for commercial constellation missions. Its flagship is the reusable, stainless-steel Zhuque-3, a Falcon 9-class vehicle whose December 2025 maiden flight reached orbit but failed to recover its booster. LandSpace's STAR Market IPO filing was accepted in December 2025 at a reported valuation near $2.7B.

Galactic Energy

A

Private

Galactic Energy (Beijing Xinghe Power) is one of China's leading commercial launch companies and the most prolific private launch provider in the country. Its small solid-fuel Ceres-1 — flying from both land and a sea platform (Ceres-1S) — has reached orbit 23 times with 21 successes, deploying around 89 satellites since 2020. The company is now developing the larger solid Ceres-2 and, most importantly, the partially reusable kerosene-liquid oxygen Pallas-1, a Falcon 9-class rocket whose first stage completed a seven-engine static fire in November 2025; by late May 2026 the ~42 m Pallas-1 stood vertical on a newly completed pad at Jiuquan ahead of an imminent maiden flight (no recovery attempt expected on the debut). Galactic Energy closed a 2.4 billion yuan (~$336M) Series D in September 2025, bringing total funding to roughly $410M, and is among the commercial launch firms now undergoing IPO vetting in China.

CAS Space

A

Private

CAS Space (Zhongke Aerospace) is a 2018 commercial spinoff majority-owned by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, led by founder and chairman Yang Yiqiang — former chief commander of the state Long March 11 solid rocket. Headquartered in Guangzhou, it operates the solid-fuel Kinetica-1 (Lijian-1), one of China's most-flown commercial rockets with 14 launches and 13 successes since 2022 (carrying 105 satellites — the first Chinese commercial rocket to top 100). In March 2026 it successfully debuted the medium-lift kerolox Kinetica-2 (Lijian-2), a three-core, nine-engine rocket. The company holds ~63% of China's private launch market by volume. CAS Space filed for a $607M IPO on the Shanghai STAR Market in April 2026 at a target valuation of ~15 billion yuan (~$2.1B), with the Shanghai Stock Exchange accepting the listing application. It is scaling output at a new Zhejiang 'super factory' and developing first-stage reusability via the in-house Kinecore-2 engine (110 tf), which successfully completed a 420-second cumulative hot-fire test in March 2026.

United Launch Alliance

B

Active (50/50 joint venture: Boeing & Lockheed Martin)

United Launch Alliance is Boeing and Lockheed Martin's launch-services joint venture for U.S. national security, NASA, and commercial customers. ULA says it has achieved more than 150 consecutive launches since 2006, and on July 2, 2026 it retired Atlas V from the Amazon campaign by flying Amazon's eighth and final Atlas V Leo mission (LEO 8) — taking ULA's Amazon Leo deliveries to 226 satellites across eight Atlas V flights — shifting the remaining Amazon backlog entirely onto Vulcan Centaur, which returned to national-security flight on June 11, 2026 with USSF-106 after resolving the February 12, 2026 USSF-87 solid-rocket-motor anomaly. Longtime CEO Tory Bruno resigned in December 2025 and joined Blue Origin's National Security Group; COO John Elbon is serving as interim CEO while ULA targets a 2026 cadence of 20-25 launches.

Relativity Space

B

Active

Relativity Space, led by CEO Eric Schmidt, is building Terran R, a reusable medium-to-heavy-lift rocket aimed at commercial, government, national-security, and telecommunications missions. After flying Terran 1 as a 3D-printing pathfinder in 2023, the company shifted fully to Terran R, pairing large-scale additive manufacturing with conventional structures for scale and cost. As of mid-July 2026 Relativity is in integrated vehicle build — the first flight-ready second stage has arrived at NASA's Stennis Space Center for testing, all Flight 1 Aeon R first-stage engines have passed acceptance testing, the first-stage qualification article has entered factory structural testing, and the LC-16 Horizontal Integration Facility at Cape Canaveral is structurally complete — against a backlog of roughly $3 billion across 12+ customers including OneWeb Gen-2 and SES. In June 2026 NASA selected Relativity to privately develop a Mars orbiter (carrying NASA's Aeolus instruments, targeting a 2028 launch), and on July 7, 2026 the U.S. Space Force added Relativity Federal to the NSSL Phase 3 Lane 1 national-security launch pool. Terran R's first launch is targeted for the second half of 2026, though some industry observers expect a slip into 2027.

Space Pioneer

B

Private

Space Pioneer (Beijing Tianbing Technology), founded in 2019 by former LandSpace CTO Kang Yonglai, develops kerosene-liquid oxygen rockets and engines. Its Tianlong-2 became the first privately developed Chinese liquid-propellant rocket to reach orbit (April 2023). The company's flagship is the reusable, Falcon 9-class Tianlong-3 (~17 t to LEO), built for China's satellite-internet constellations, but its April 2026 maiden flight failed about 33 seconds after liftoff. Space Pioneer has raised roughly $764M.

iSpace (Interstellar Glory)

B

Private

iSpace (Beijing Interstellar Glory Space Technology), founded in 2016 by former state rocket designer Peng Xiaobo, made history in July 2019 when its solid-fuel Hyperbola-1 became the first Chinese privately developed rocket to reach orbit. Hyperbola-1's track record has been uneven (four successes in eight flights), and the company's future now rests on Hyperbola-3, a partially reusable methane-liquid oxygen rocket sized between 8.5 and 13.4 tonnes to LEO. By April 2026, Hyperbola-3's JD-2 engines and both stages had been qualified for flight, a pathfinder was at Wenchang, and the Qinglan recovery drone ship was ready, with a first orbital flight and sea-recovery attempt targeted for 2026. In February 2026 iSpace closed a record 5.037 billion yuan (~$729.6M) Series D++ — the largest disclosed funding round by any Chinese launch startup — making it the country's best-funded private launch firm, and it is among the commercial players now undergoing IPO vetting in China.

Orienspace

B

Private

Orienspace (Oriental Space / Dongfang Space), founded in 2020 in Yantai, builds the Gravity (Yinli) family of launch vehicles. Its solid-propellant Gravity-1 is the world's largest and most powerful solid-fuel carrier rocket — sea-launched from a barge off Haiyang and capable of 6,500 kg to LEO — with two successful flights to date (January 2024 maiden, October 2025 second) and a goal of up to four flights in 2026. The company is now developing Gravity-2, a roughly 70-meter, partially reusable kerosene-liquid oxygen heavy-lift rocket powered by nine in-house Yuanli-110 engines and sized at over 20 tonnes to LEO; after schedule slips, an Orienspace official has said the debut flight is now targeted for the end of 2026, with the triple-core Gravity-3 to follow in 2027. Orienspace raised an $83.5M Series B in January 2024, added a Series B+ round in August 2025, and has been valued at roughly $823M.

Deep Blue Aerospace

B

Private

Deep Blue Aerospace (深蓝航天) is a Chinese commercial launch startup built around vertically landing, reusable kerosene–liquid oxygen rockets — positioning itself as one of China's closest analogs to early SpaceX. Founded in 2016 and headquartered in Nantong, it has flown a series of VTVL hop tests, most notably a September 2024 high-altitude flight that completed 10 of 11 objectives with ~0.5 m landing accuracy before an anomaly during the final engine shutdown damaged the stage on touchdown. The company is now preparing the maiden flight of its medium-lift Nebula-1, which can loft up to 2,000 kg to LEO on nine Thunder-R engines and is designed for first-stage recovery; the first Nebula-1A vehicle was rolled out in March 2026 to a new sea-recovery pad on Lianli Island at Haiyang — which reached full launch-capable status after an integrated test mission on March 30–31, 2026 — for a debut orbital flight, now targeted for mid-2026, that will attempt a first-stage splashdown recovery. Deep Blue is also developing the much larger Nebula-2 (25,000+ kg to LEO) and has begun pre-selling suborbital space-tourism tickets for flights targeted in 2027.

ExPace

B

State-Owned (CASIC subsidiary)

ExPace (航天科工火箭技术), also known as CASIC Rocket Technology Company, is the commercial launch arm of state-owned missile and aerospace giant CASIC (China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation). Founded in 2016 and based in Wuhan, it markets the solid-propellant Kuaizhou ('fast vessel') family — derived from missile technology — for rapid, low-cost small-satellite launches that can be readied in hours. The workhorse Kuaizhou-1A (and its upgraded 1A Pro) has flown about 30 times, and the larger Kuaizhou-11 returned to service in 2022 after its failed 2020 maiden flight; despite initial silence sparking failure speculation, Xinhua confirmed Kuaizhou-11's sixth flight successfully placed the CentiSpace-1 Group 05 navigation-augmentation satellites in orbit on June 18, 2026. Across all variants the family has logged roughly 40 launches. ExPace was an early mover in China's commercial sector — it famously auctioned a Kuaizhou-1A launch on Taobao for about $5.6M in 2020 — but its all-solid, expendable vehicles are increasingly challenged by reusable kerolox startups, and CASIC is pursuing larger Kuaizhou-21/-31 and reusable concepts to keep pace.

Space Epoch

B

Private

Space Epoch (箭元科技), legally Beijing Jianyuan Technology and branded 'Sepoch', is a Chinese commercial launch startup developing the Yuanxingzhe-1 ('Hiker-1') — a stainless-steel, methane–liquid oxygen, partially reusable medium-lift rocket whose sea-recovery, low-cost design draws frequent comparisons to a smaller SpaceX Starship. On May 29, 2025 it pulled off China's first sea-based vertical-takeoff/vertical-landing recovery test: a single-engine demonstrator flew a ~125-second suborbital hop to roughly 2.5 km and executed a controlled splashdown off Haiyang, Shandong, with the stainless stage recovered largely intact. Rather than build its own engines, Space Epoch buys methalox powerplants from engine maker Jiuzhou Yunjian. In January 2026 it broke ground on a 5.2 billion yuan (~$740M) sea-recovery rocket plant in Hangzhou sized for up to 25 vehicles a year, aiming to cut launch costs toward 20,000 yuan/kg. Three Yuanxingzhe-1 rockets are in production for a first orbital launch and recovery attempt targeted by the end of 2026. The company has also signed a headline-grabbing Taobao/Alibaba partnership exploring rocket-based parcel delivery and a cooperation toward a new MEO satellite constellation.

Cosmoleap

C

Private

Cosmoleap (大航跃迁), legally Dahang Yueqian Technology, is a Chinese launch startup founded in March 2024 by Chen Shuguang to build the Yueqian-1 ('Leap-1') — and notably is the first Chinese company to pursue a SpaceX Starship-style 'chopstick' tower-catch recovery instead of landing legs. The roughly 70 m-tall, 4.2 m-diameter, methane–liquid oxygen two-stage rocket is designed to lift about 18,000 kg to LEO when expended or ~12,000 kg with the first stage recovered, on a cluster of nine ~80-ton-class engines reusable up to 20 times. It initially flies the YF-209 engine sourced from CASC's Academy of Aerospace Liquid Propulsion Technology while developing its own 100-ton-class Qingyu-11 methalox engine (targeting ~150 t thrust, deep throttling, and up to 50 reuses). Cosmoleap raised roughly 100 million yuan (~$14M) in November 2024 and a 500 million yuan (~$73M) Series A in April 2026 — about 600 million yuan (~$84M) total — led by Qianhai Ark and Puhua Capital. With its design review passed and a tower-catch verification platform and drop tests underway, the company plans final assembly and integrated testing in the second half of 2026 and a debut orbital flight in 2027.