SpaceX's long-awaited initial public offering is sending a fresh wave of money and attention into aerospace stocks, and three smaller names are catching the lift: Intuitive Machines, Redwire and Spire Global. The renewed appetite comes as investors search for ways to play a market that suddenly has a headline-grabbing catalyst again.
That search is showing up in the numbers. Intuitive Machines, which focuses on lunar access and exploration, has built its backlog to $1.1 billion after winning more than $428 million in new contracts, and its stock is up more than 110% in 2026. The company also acquired Lanteris Space Systems, works with NASA on the Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, and said first-quarter 2026 revenue hit a record $186 billion, nearly triple the year-earlier figure. Management also reaffirmed full-year guidance of $900 million to $1 billion, a sign it expects the momentum to continue.
Redwire is drawing notice for a different reason: It has a portfolio of space infrastructure technologies, is leaning more heavily into defense after its 2025 acquisition of Edge Autonomy, and posted first-quarter 2026 revenue of $97 million, nearly 58% higher than a year earlier. Its backlog reached a record $498 million after multi-year, multi-million-dollar deals with NATO allies and the U.S. Space Force sent the shares soaring. The stock has risen about 190% since the start of the year, but with a market value of just $4 billion, it remains more reasonably priced than much of the space sector, where valuations have been pushed to loftier levels. That relative gap is part of what has made the name stand out alongside the market's bigger space stories.
Spire Global is also on the list. It runs a satellite network with uses that stretch from meteorology to aviation, sold its maritime business in 2025 and used the proceeds to pay down debt, and now expects 2026 revenue of $75 million to $85 million, or 50% growth from a year earlier. Its stock has gained 145% year to date. The common thread across all three companies is not just that they are smaller than Rocket Lab, whose valuation has already launched into the stratosphere, but that each has some combination of contracts, revenue growth or cleaner balance sheets that gives investors a concrete story to buy into while SpaceX remains the bigger catalyst in the background.
What remains unresolved is whether that attention lasts once the SpaceX IPO excitement fades. For now, the listing chatter has done what a major market event often does: it has forced investors to look past the obvious names and ask which smaller space companies can turn a burst of enthusiasm into something more durable.
