[ad_1] The post 3 Stocks for the New Space Race appeared first on Millennial Money. Welcome to the new space race! Much has changed from the halcyon days of America’s space program, when bragging rights against the Soviet Union were on the line. You might recall the Soviet Union (now Russia) beat the United States into space by mere weeks in 1961, but America scored an even bigger win when the Apollo 11 landed humans on the moon in 1969. Now the two countries are partners—at least when it comes to space travel—and the biggest financial contributors to the joint International Space Station (ISS) spacecraft. Yet, the recent collaboration between Russia and the United States isn’t even the most surprising development in space travel. Instead, it’s the privatization of space exploration! Last week marked a significant milestone in the future of space travel when Sir Richard Branson became the first person to take a commercial spaceflight on his own spacecraft. Branson might be the first spacefarer, but he certainly won’t be the last. In a race against time that harkens back to the early ‘60s, Branson edged out Jeff Bezos by just a few days, as the Blue Origin CEO is slated to take his own interstellar trip next week. or, jump ahead to check out our Top Space Stocks. Decades in the making It’s easy for investors to believe the privately funded space race occurred overnight, but the fact is there have been decades of private investment. Fun fact: two of the “Big 3” spaceflight companies—SpaceX and Blue Origin—are older than Facebook. The third, Virgin Galactic, is only a few months younger than the social media juggernaut. Space travel isn’t cheap, so it’s no coincidence these companies were founded by billionaires. Branson parlayed his Virgin Records label into one of Europe’s best-known brands, Bezos is the multi-centibillionaire who founded Amazon.com, and SpaceX is the brainchild of Tesla CEO Elon Musk. However, when it comes to space exploration, these billionaires will be working in close collaboration with the U.S. government. Although the various factions in Washington are rarely in agreement, the privatization of space travel has been supported and expanded upon by the last three presidents. Space tourism and so much more We love optionality at Millennial Money. And considering the global space industry is already a $350 billion annual business, there are myriad ways for businesses to earn revenue. In fact, in the short-term it’s unlikely that commercial space tourism will even be the biggest revenue driver! Instead, it’s governments that will initially be the biggest customers of spaceflight companies. There’s quite a few ways companies will make money supporting national space ambitions. Obviously, there are opportunities for spaceflight companies to deliver astronauts to the ISS and provide planetary travel (like the upcoming deal discussed below). But often forgotten are the lucrative contracts for delivering goods and materials (payloads) for government consumers. But there’s more opportunity than just being an Uber for astronauts. Often overlooked are the tremendous opportunities for suppliers and companies tasked with directly and indirectly supporting governmental agencies. The new space race will provide ample opportunities for manufacturing and contracting functions. That’s major coin: NASA’s budget in 2021 is approximately $25 billion with an additional $15 billion allocated to the newly created U.S. Space Force budget this year! That said, we don’t want to overlook commercial space travel, as it will be one of the significant long-term growth drivers for the industry. And growth is certainly expected as analysts estimate space will be a $1 trillion market by 2040. With such a promising runway for growth, quite a few space stocks are likely to become winners in this industry. Top 3 Space Stocks for the New Space Race Here are three stocks you can buy to take advantage of the private space race. Virgin Galactic is a pure-play spaceflight company Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc (NYSE:SPCE) Price: $32.03 (as of close Jul 20, 2021) Market Cap: 7,713,514,086 document.addEventListener(“DOMContentLoaded”, function(event) { Highcharts.stockChart(“stockChart-b1466d97018f8f2c0740297d31700ae8”,{rangeSelector:{selected:1},title:{text:”Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc (NYSE:SPCE)Closing Stock Price”},subtitle: {text: “30-Day Historical Data”},navigator: { enabled: false },scrollbar: { enabled: false },credits: { enabled: false },xAxis: { type: “datetime”, labels: { formatter: function() { return Highcharts.dateFormat(“%m %d, %Y”, this.value); }}},colors: [“#118b4e”],rangeSelector : { enabled: false },series:[{name:”NYSE:SPCE”,data:[[1624248000000,36.02],[1624334400000,39.42],[1624420800000,40.82],[1624507200000,40.26],[1624593600000,55.91],[1624852800000,54.84],[1624939200000,47.02],[1625025600000,46],[1625112000000,43.19],[1625198400000,44.94],[1625544000000,46.31],[1625630400000,44.92],[1625716800000,52.69],[1625803200000,49.2],[1626062400000,40.69],[1626148800000,37.76],[1626235200000,33.07],[1626321600000,31.74],[1626408000000,30.2],[1626667200000,32.4],[1626753600000,32.03],],tooltip:{valueDecimals:2,xDateFormat: “%A, %B %e, %Y”}}]}); }); Unsurprisingly, Virgin Galactic tops this list of companies slated to benefit from the new space economy. As the only publicly traded “Big 3” spaceflight company (Virgin, Blue Origin, SpaceX), Virgin Galactic remains the most prominent pure-play investment. Virgin Galactic bills itself as a space tourism company, offering flights in its SpaceShipTwo vehicle. That’s understandable as the company has a huge backlog of nearly 600 private customers waiting to take spaceflights at $250,000 a head (that’s $150 million if you were about to whip out your calculator app). After completing his flight last week, Branson noted, “We’re here to make space more accessible to all.” While this is an admirable goal, it’s likely the price will be out of reach for most potential consumers for the foreseeable future. Despite the strong backlog, Virgin Galactic has yet to fly a revenue-producing space tourism flight (the recent Unity 22 mission was manned by Branson and other Virgin Galactic employees). Virgin Galactic expects the first of such tourist flights will occur next year. Although Virgin Galactic appears to focus on commercial space tourism, investors may be overlooking the opportunity for revenue from governments. In 2019, Virgin Galactic inked a deal with Italy’s Air Force to perform a research flight in which researchers will conduct experiments in space. Per CEO Michael Colglazier, the Italian flight will be Virgin Galactic’s next launch and will include three participants in multiple payloads. Therein lies an overlooked opportunity for Virgin Galactic stock. Although not often mentioned by “meme stock” traders who have piled into the stock, providing spaceflight services to governments could be the most viable short-term business model. Just compare it to airlines. Governments will act like dependable business class customers and space tourism will be