Tomorrow is the big day: SpaceX officially IPOs. With this massive catalyst finally arriving, I thought it was the perfect time to check in on the new fleet of Space ETFs that have rapidly come to market and analyze the sheer volume of money that has flowed along with them.
To make this quick, I built a custom watchlist of the 8 prominent Space ETFs currently trading. Below is a quick-hitter video walking through the performance, flows, and the mechanics under the hood of this thematic category.
From Non-Existent to $5.2 Billion: The Flow Story
At the start of the year, Space ETFs held a collective $728 million in assets. Today, that number has rocketed to $5.2 billion. The most staggering data point? Roughly $4.75 billion of that has come in this year alone.
While the category is expanding with cleverly-tickered newcomers like MARS, ORBX, WARP, and DIPR, the vast majority of the capital has been concentrated at the top. NASA, driven heavily by attention around its actual ownership in SpaceX, has pulled in the lion’s share.
Click any ticker below to view its full ETF Action profile.
| Ticker | Fund Name | Current AUM ($MM) | YTD Flows ($MM) |
|---|---|---|---|
| NASA | Tema Space Innovators ETF | $2,663.72M | +$3,040M |
| UFO | Procure Space ETF | $1,086.75M | +$866M |
| ARKX | ARK Space & Defense Innovation ETF | $1,035.88M | +$443M |
| ROKT | State Street SPDR S&P Kensho Final Frontiers ETF | $242.56M | +$178M |
| MARS | Roundhill Space & Technology ETF | $93.55M | +$99M |
| ORBX | Global X Space Tech ETF | $51.24M | +$61M |
| WARP | VanEck Space ETF | $46.58M | +$59M |
| DIPR | Corgi Space & Satellite Communications ETF | $3.93M | +$4M |
The Performance Reality Check: Timing is Everything
One critical observation I want to highlight is the severe disconnect between fund performance and actual investor experience. Let’s look at NASA as the prime example.
Since its inception, NASA is up roughly 18%. However, looking at the daily fund flows overlaid with the price chart, nearly all of that $3 billion flowed into the fund right at its absolute top—when the ETF was up nearly 60% just a few weeks ago. Because returns have fallen off significantly since that peak, the vast majority of investors in this fund are currently underwater, despite the ETF boasting a positive track record on paper.
Under the Hood: High Overlap & Consensus Holdings
When running these funds through our overlap tool, I found a significant amount of commonality. With the exception of ROKT (which is highly differentiated), the rest of the peer group exhibits over 50% overlap in the names they hold.
The Consensus Space Plays
Three specific companies are currently held in 8 out of 8 of the ETFs in our watchlist, representing the market’s consensus on pure-play space exposure:
- Rocket Lab
- Iridium
- Intuitive Machines
NASA’s Security Profile
Diving into NASA’s composition, it leans heavily into small-cap growth relative to the broader category. Sector allocations are heavily concentrated:
- Industrials (Aero/Defense): Majority Weight
- Information Technology: ~22%
- Comm Services: ~15%
Explore the Data: Space ETFs – WE HAVE LIFT OFF!!
Below is an aggregated look at the total return, AUM growth, and daily fund flows for our custom Space ETF watchlist year-to-date.
