Launch, satellites and the space companies around SpaceX, now that it trades publicly.
The orbital economy is one of 22 market stories StoryVector measures. 44 US ETFs carry it, with $4 billion between them; the largest holder, NASA, holds 39.2% of its capital. This week it ranks 10th of 22 for attention, in the WARM band. Over the past year its ETFs returned +18.1%, against +16.8% for broad US ETFs, to October 2, 2026; past performance, not a recommendation.
Its level among all 22 on the fixed 25 to 60 scale. The band is where the level sits this week, not a direction.
Its ETFs ranked among the narratives, lowest to highest. The white notch is this one; the thin tick is where broad US ETFs would sit. Measured and past, not a forecast.
What the story is about, where its attention comes from, what sets it off, and what it shares ETFs with.
SpaceX's listing made space a stock market story. Is space an industry, or one company?
Launch, satellites and ground systems form a sector with many companies, customers and contracts. SpaceX is its largest member.
The space economy is SpaceX plus a few smaller names. Without it, most of the attention and value would not be there.
What would separate them. What happens around SpaceX. If space is an industry, other launch and satellite companies win contracts and draw attention of their own. If it is one company, the news is SpaceX's news.
A large share of the capital here is in leveraged or inverse ETFs, mostly on SpaceX alone. The rest sits in space ETFs that hold many companies. We measure the attention and the capital, not the value of any launch.
44 ETFs carry this narrative; 38 have it as their main one. Here is how its capital divides among them.
The asset-weighted return of the unlevered ETFs that carry this narrative, against broad US ETFs. Measured and past, not a forecast.
| 1M | 3M | YTD | 1Y | 3Y* | 5Y* | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The orbital economyits ETFs, unlevered | +6.6% | −9.9% | +16.9% | +18.1% | +38.0% | +13.5% |
| rank among the narratives | 7th of 22 | 21st of 22 | 6th of 22 | 6th of 21 | 3rd of 21 | 5th of 21 |
| The marketbroad US ETFs | +0.8% | +2.6% | +14.6% | +16.8% | +22.9% | +12.9% |
1M, 3M, 1Y, 3Y, 5Y: one month to five years. YTD: year to date. * A year, annualized. Rank is among the narratives with a full record for the period. A dash means the narrative’s ETFs do not cover the whole period.
Total return on the market price, each distribution reinvested on its ex-date. The narrative is the asset-weighted return of the unlevered ETFs that carry it; the market is the asset-weighted return of broad US index ETFs. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.
4 categories, each claimed by a written rule. The bar is each one’s share of the capital. The table names what decides each.
| Category | ETFs | Capital | Share of the ETFs | Share of the capital |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Space ETFsLaunch and satellite contracts, government and commercial, and the rate used to value profits years away | 9 | $1.9 bn | 24% | 44.4% |
| Levered and inverse wrappersThe day-to-day path of SpaceX's, Rocket Lab's and AST SpaceMobile's share prices, which a daily reset compounds | 25 | $1.4 bn | 66% | 33.3% |
| Space and technologyTechnology and communications spending broadly, with space one part | 3 | $1.0 bn | 8% | 22.2% |
| Everything else | 1 | under $0.1 bn | 3% | 0.1% |
The widest gap: levered and inverse wrappers, 66% of the ETFs and 33.3% of the capital.
What issuers have listed with this as the main narrative, by wrapper.
What issuers have listed, not what anyone expects. A wrapper can be listed before anyone wants it, so a count of ETFs and a share of capital answer different questions.
44 US ETFs carry it. The largest holders of its capital are NASA (39.2%), UFOX (22.5%) and UFO (19.7%).
NASA, with 39.2% of the capital in ETFs carrying the story; the top five hold 96.6%.
Its attention level is 50.4 on a scale of 25 to 60, 10th of 22 this week, in the WARM band. The level averages six channels: search, video, news, forums, investor boards and reference pages.
Asset weighted, its ETFs returned +18.1% over the past year, against +16.8% for broad US ETFs, to October 2, 2026. Past performance only.
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