Rocket Lab, RTX, and Palantir: The Best SpaceX Alternatives for Investors Who Missed the IPO or Want Out
Rocket Lab, RTX, and Palantir offer three different ways to gain exposure to space, defense, and military AI.
Overview
Space Exploration Technologies (NASDAQ: SPCX), also known as SpaceX, is a remarkable engineering organization carrying the balance sheet of a company that borrowed its way into an artificial intelligence (AI) race it hasn't yet proven it can win. For investors who either missed the IPO window, watched the post-debut sell-off with concern, or simply want exposure to the aerospace and defense sector without signing up for $400 billion in projected net debt by 2031, there are three businesses worth knowing. Each is durable, generating real cash, and doing something in 2026 that makes the long-term case for ownership cleaner than it has been in years.
Rocket Lab (NASDAQ: RKLB) is the most direct SpaceX analog available to public investors, and the gap between what the two companies are doing today is much narrower than the market has historically priced.
Details
Rocket Lab just signed the largest launch contract in its history. The contract is a multilaunch agreement with an undisclosed customer that includes five dedicated Neutron rocket flights and three Electron flights, all scheduled between now and 2029. That deal pushed the company's total backlog past $2.2 billion, a number that keeps growing as the customer pipeline matures. CEO Peter Beck has been building toward Neutron's debut in Q4 2026, targeting its first commercial flight and then a cadence of three launches in year two and five in year three -- the same disciplined ramp-up Electron followed when it debuted in 2017.
Source
Originally published at www.fool.com.