Get Ready for the Next Great Space Stock IPO

Private space stations are coming, and at long last, it looks like investors are going to get a chance to invest directly in one of the companies leading this movement.

It's been less than four years since Amazon founder Jeff Bezos dropped his big bombshell on the space industry. Announcing the creation of Orbital Reef, Bezos' space company Blue Origin, alongside partnered space companies Boeing, Redwire, and Sierra Space, promised to build a private space station to replace the outgoing International Space Station when it retires in 2031.

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Announcing #OrbitalReef-a commercial space station transforming human space travel and opening access to new markets. Our team developing the premier commercial destination in low Earth orbit: @BlueOrigin @SierraSpaceCo @BoeingSpace @RedwireSpace @ASU https://t.co/PP4wxrfkF3 pic.twitter.com/qJDdYg7BSv

-- Orbital Reef (@OrbitalReef) October 25, 2021

It wasn't long before other companies caught the space bug. In no time flat, space station ideas were being floated by companies, both private (Axiom Space, Vast Space) and public. And while neither Orbital Reef nor Bezos' Blue Origin are public stocks you can invest in, the company leading one of these other space stations, Voyager Technologies, soon may be.

Announcing the Voyager Technologies IPO (quietly)

The Wall Street Journal broke the story last week. Operating under little-known Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Rule 135, which permits companies to announce they're going public while keeping the details under wraps, Voyager Technologies (which until just recently called itself Voyager Space) has announced an initial public offering (IPO).

Because the details remain confidential, we know little about this new space IPO. However, here is what we do know.

Denver-based Voyager Technologies has about 1,000 employees working in the defense and space industries. On its website, Voyager claims to have "over 35 years of spaceflight heritage" under its belt. (It's not 100% clear what that means or how the math works. Voyager itself is barely six years old.) The company further claims to have accomplished "over 2,000 successful missions" serving customers in "36+ countries."

Again, this may vary significantly based on who is counting and how.

Voyager's leadership

Voyager's co-founder and CEO, Dylan Taylor, has a background in real estate and private equity, according to biographical data provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence. However, he also has a degree in engineering from the University of Arizona and an MBA in finance from the University of Chicago.

His co-founder, Matthew Kuta, possesses extensive experience with space-related businesses and is both a former Air Force fighter pilot and a graduate of the United States Air Force Academy. Together, these men founded Voyager Space in 2019.

Over the several years since then, they've steadily added more companies to assemble an international consortium to help Voyager build its proposed "Starlab" space station. At last report, the team included Europe's Airbus (OTC: EADSY), Canada's MDA Space, Japan's Mitsubishi, and Hilton Hotels and Northrop Grumman from the U.S.

The companies have attracted SpaceX to provide launch services to get their space station's first module into orbit. They have also brought on Palantir (NASDAQ: PLTR), which is reported to be an investor in Voyager, to build AI-improved software services into the station.

Voyager and Airbus appear to have the biggest stakes in building Starlab.

In 2024, these two formed a Starlab Space LLC joint venture to design, build, and operate the space station. However, it's unclear at this time (remember that this is all "confidential") how big of an equity stake any of the other companies might have in either Voyager itself or Starlab.

Image source: Getty Images.

Voyager IPO date and details

Experts interviewed by WSJ believe Voyager Technologies will seek a $2 billion to $3 billion valuation when it IPOs. It's unclear how they came up with this valuation, however. It probably won't be clear until we see a prospectus and learn how much revenue Voyager's "over 2,000 successful missions" have produced and whether that revenue has been profitable.

There is no word yet on when the IPO will happen. According to Voyager, it is still working out "the number of shares to be offered and the price range for the proposed offering." There's also no word on when a prospectus will be published to tell us what these numbers will look like.

But as soon as we know, we'll let you know.

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John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Rich Smith has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon and Palantir Technologies. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.