Space might not be the final frontier in investing, but it’s shaping up to be the next great frontier. And if you’re looking to harness the industry’s potential, you can do so through a rapidly growing number of space ETFs.
The space industry is hardly new—commercial satellite launches have been around since the 1960s—but it has come to the forefront of late because of the initial public offering (IPO) of SpaceX (SPCX). Elon Musk’s aerospace manufacturing company, which also provides satellite communications and launch services, went public at a valuation of $1.8 trillion and raised a record $75 billion. The company claims it has a total addressable market (TAM) of $28.5 trillion.
Some might take that latter figure with a grain of salt given the distance between some of Musk’s previous claims and reality. But business analysts broadly believe space represents a massive opportunity. McKinsey, for instance, estimates the global space economy will be worth $1.8 trillion by 2035, or about triple the $630 billion it was worth in 2023.
Like with many emergent technologies, investors could try to pick winners and hope they don’t hitch their wagons to the names that eventually fizzle out … or they could purchase diversified exchange-traded funds to profit from the growth of the broader industry.
Let me introduce you to some of the best space ETFs you can buy right now.
Editor’s Note: The tabular data presented in this article is up-to-date as of Sept. 24, 2026.
Disclaimer: This article does not constitute individualized investment advice. Individual securities, funds, and/or other investments appear for your consideration and not as personalized investment recommendations. Act at your own discretion.
Wall Street’s Top Space ETFs
While the commercial space industry has existed in some form since before most of us were born, space ETFs have really only existed for less than a decade.
And they typically share a few common traits:
- Similar holdings. The space industry, while hardly nascent, isn’t exactly widespread. Most of these ETFs hold only a few dozen companies, and many of them play in the same pool.
- Similar sector weights. Along the same lines, space ETFs tend to allocate a huge chunk of their assets to industrial/defense companies, with the rest going to communications and technology firms.
- Similar fees. “Thematic” funds that focus on specific investment opportunities that span a few different sectors often charge more than broad-market funds. All of the funds here assess annual fees between 0.35% and 0.75% annually, with several charging that top-end number.
That doesn’t mean there aren’t meaningful variations now—but like with many thematic funds, these space ETFs will likely differentiate themselves even more if and when the space industry expands.
With that, let’s look at some of the best space ETFs you can buy right now.
ETFs are listed in order of assets under management (AUM), from largest to smallest.
1. Ark Space & Defense Innovation ETF
- Inception: March 30, 2021
- Assets under management: $773.7 million
- Expense ratio: 0.75%, or $7.50 per year on every $1,000 invested
Cathie Wood’s actively managed Ark Space & Defense Innovation ETF (ARKX) was a relatively early entrant into the space race at its 2021 launch, and its $775 million in AUM makes it the largest of the space ETFs right now.
When I initially covered this fund’s launch years ago, it was known as the ARK Space Exploration & Innovation ETF, but in 2025, it changed its moniker to Space & Defense—but this didn’t herald a strategy pivot so much as it better reflected what the fund already owned.
ARKX holds companies focused on either space or defense innovation, which ARK Investment Management defines as “leading, enabling, or benefiting from technologically enabled products and/or services that occur beyond the surface of the Earth.” The 35-stock portfolio focuses on technologies such as autonomous mobility, intelligent devices, 3D printing, advanced batteries, reusable rockets, and more.
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Ark Space & Defense Innovation ETF is big on industrials (60% of assets) and technology (26%), with the rest of its funds scattered across consumer discretionary, communication, and even healthcare companies. SpaceX is unsurprisingly the top holding, but its declines since coming public have reduced its weight to about 11% right now. But ARKX is also thick in defense companies such as L3Harris Technologies (LHX), Kratos Defense & Security Solutions (KTOS), and drone specialist AeroVironment (AVAV).
Perhaps the most initially head-scratching component is top-10 holding Deere (DE) … but the tractor maker partnered with SpaceX in 2024 to provide satellite communications to farmers. So there’s that.
Because ARKX and other ARK Invest ETFs are actively managed, it’s important to keep tabs on personnel. On that front, there are some concerns to keep in mind.
“In recent years, the firm has taken concrete steps to reduce its reliance on [Wood],” Morningstar Principal Robby Greengold says. “But the firm hasn’t yet made much tangible progress in easing its key-person risk or strengthening its risk culture, warranting a Below Average Parent rating. The firm’s analysts often don’t stick around. Wood remains the only team member with hands-on portfolio management experience. The firm has struggled to develop and retain investment team talent; only four of its analysts have tenures greater than five years.”
Want to learn more about ARKX? Check out the ARK Invest provider site.
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2. Procure Space ETF
- Inception: April 11, 2019
- Assets under management: $548.1 million
- Expense ratio: 0.75%, or $7.50 per year on every $1,000 invested
The second-largest space ETF is also among the oldest: Procure Space ETF (UFO), from market veteran Andrew Chanin’s ETF firm, ProcureAM.
The Procure Space ETF tracks the VettaFi Space Index, which allocates at least 80% of its weight to “companies that derive a majority of revenues from space-related industries, including those companies utilizing satellite technology.” Among those industries?
- Ground equipment manufacturing dependent upon satellite systems
- Rocket and satellite manufacturing and operation
- Satellite-based telecommunications, radio, and television broadcasting
- Space industry segments—space-based imagery and intelligence services
- Space technology and hardware
UFO’s portfolio currently stands at 68 stocks. From a sector perspective, industrials make up half of UFO’s assets, and the rest is split evenly between technology and communications. This is also a global fund. The U.S. accounts for about three-quarters of assets, and a handful of other countries—including Switzerland, Canada, Japan, and the Netherlands, among others—make up the rest.
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Right now, SpaceX is the top component by a mile, at a roughly 15% weight. It also holds SpaceX rival Rocket Lab (RKLB), positioning specialist Garmin (GRMN), and even longtime satellite radio firm SiriusXM Holdings (SIRI).
Procure also spells out how the fund could evolve over time if and when new space businesses become possible and viable. Among the potential industries the ETF could eventually reflect are space tourism, space-based military and defense systems, space colonization, and space resource exploration and extraction.
The Procure Space ETF launched a little more than seven years ago, and it might have been ahead of its time. In a recent Reuters report, Chanin noted that “UFO was labeled the worst ETF launch of the year by Morningstar in 2019.” It boasted less than $100 million in AUM for most of its first six years of trading and only had $170 million as of the start of 2026. Today, UFO is worth well more than three times as much, and UFO actually surpassed the billion-dollar mark earlier this year before space stocks’ summer plunge.
I’d argue that the current index construction and its built-in flexibility make UFO one of the best space ETFs any of us will come across.
Want to learn more about UFO? Check out the Procure provider site.
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3. Spear Alpha ETF
- Inception: Aug. 2, 2021
- Assets under management: $233.0 million
- Expense ratio: 0.75%, or $7.50 per year on every $1,000 invested
Launching in the same year as UFO (to far less fanfare) was the Spear Alpha ETF (SPRX), which is the lone exchange-traded fund under Ivana Delevska’s Spear Funds umbrella.
The lack of hullabaloo then, and now, is largely because this isn’t a pure-play space fund—instead, it invests in “companies benefiting from breakthrough trends in industrial technology.” That includes space exploration, as well as other enticing growth trends such as artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, and automation. It also invests in enterprise digitalization, energy transition, and photonics and additive manufacturing.
Spear Alpha ETF attempts to harness all of these themes across a tight portfolio of around 30 stocks, and it does so predominantly through the technology sector. Tech stocks—including engineered materials firm Coherent (COHR), and semiconductor firms Astera Labs (ALAB) and ARM Holdings (ARM)—make up almost 90% of assets. The remainder is split among industrials, communications, and financial services stocks.
There’s a little holdings overlap with some of these other space ETFs, including SpaceX and Rocket Lab, but this isn’t so much a direct line to the cosmos as it is a way to invest in numerous emerging technologies … including space.
Want to learn more about SPRX? Check out the Spear Funds provider site.
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4. State Street SPDR S&P Kensho Final Frontiers ETF
- Inception: Oct. 22, 2018
- Assets under management: $178.1 million
- Expense ratio: 0.45%, or $4.50 per year on every $1,000 invested
The State Street SPDR S&P Kensho Final Frontiers ETF (ROKT) actually predates all of the other space-specific funds on this list, and it’s also one of the least expensive ways to invest in the industry.
But you’ll want to pay close attention to one of the words in its name: “frontiers.” As in “more than one.” Let’s take a look at the product description page (emphasis mine):
“[ROKT] seeks to track an index utilizing artificial intelligence and a quantitative weighting methodology to capture companies whose products and services are driving innovation behind the exploration of the final frontiers, which includes the areas of outer space and the deep sea.”
OK, so it’s not a pure play on the Milky Way.
The fund does hold plenty of space stocks, including Planet Labs (PL), an Earth imaging company; aerospace manufacturer and space infrastructure tech firm Redwire (RDW); global satellite communications network operator Iridium Communications (IRDM), and more. But they’ve largely shifted to the bottom of the portfolio amid the recent decline in space stocks. Currently, top holdings are a motley crew including oilfield products and services provider Forum Energy Technologies (FET), Collins Aerospace parent RTX Corp. (RTX), and aircraft giant Boeing (BA). And yes, the ETF holds deep-sea firms, including subsea robotics specialist Oceaneering International (OII).
Industrial stocks broadly (and defense companies specifically) are a big part of most space ETFs. But they’re an even greater influence on ROKT than they are elsewhere, as State Street’s ETF allocates two-thirds of assets to the sector. I say that to say this: U.S. and other nations’ defense spending will also have a say in these funds’ performance, but perhaps Final Frontiers more than most.
To its credit, though, ROKT has been one of the best space ETFs of the past few years.
Want to learn more about ROKT? Check out the State Street provider site.
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5. Roundhill Space & Technology ETF
- Inception: March 5, 2026
- Assets under management: $47.8 million
- Expense ratio: 0.75%, or $7.50 per year on every $1,000 invested
Roundhill Space & Technology ETF (MARS), another actively managed product to rival ARKX, debuted this spring and has cobbled together a modest $50 million or so in assets.
This is a pure-play fund that “seeks exposure to the space economy and enabling technologies, focusing on space companies powering industries reliant on space infrastructure.” That means these companies are enabling things you’d expect, such as GPS, internet, and weather forecasting … but also some things you might not, such as agriculture, banking, and healthcare.
A seven-manager team oversees a 30-stock portfolio that owns the aforementioned Rocket Lab; Viasat, which provides satellite communications solutions, wireless communications, and content deliver; satellite designer AST SpaceMobile (ASTS); European space systems firm OHB. But No. 1 with a bullet is SpaceX, at almost a quarter of assets.
Huge concentrations are a risk you run in actively run funds, where management typically has discretion to make outsized bets on their highest-conviction picks. Roundhill’s investment committee is consciously betting big on SPCX, for better or worse. And in the short term, that choice has weighed like a rock on MARS’ returns.
Want to learn more about MARS? Check out the Roundhill Investments provider site.
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6. VanEck Space ETF
- Inception: May 6, 2026
- Assets under management: $43.7 million
- Expense ratio: 0.50%, or $5.00 per year on every $1,000 invested
The VanEck Space ETF (WARP) is another pure-play space ETF that came out in spring 2026, ahead of the SPCX offering.
This is a relatively inexpensive passive product that tracks the MarketVector Space Index, which owns the companies behind launch systems, satellite infrastructure, Earth observation, and space data, with a stated goal of avoiding “the typical dominance of aerospace and defense names.”
Avoiding those names leaves WARP with an extremely tight portfolio of around 20 holdings, and it’s highly concentrated in SpaceX and RocketLab, which collectively account for more than a third of its assets. That has so far been a detriment to VanEck’s fund, whose $44 million in assets are roughly half of what they were at their June peak.
From a sector standpoint, VanEck Space ETF is half invested in satellite and related communication companies, and another 40% invested in other industrials, with virtually all of the rest in tech.
The 0.50% expense ratio isn’t the lowest fee in the group, but it’s cheaper than most.
Want to learn more about WARP? Check out the VanEck provider site.
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7. Global X Space Tech ETF
- Inception: April 14, 2026
- Assets under management: $41.7 million
- Expense ratio: 0.50%, or $5.00 per year on every $1,000 invested
Global X Space Tech ETF (ORBX) is one of the newest space ETFs, launched in April with a 50-basis-point fee that undercuts most of the pure-play interstellar funds. (A basis point is one one-hundredth of a percentage point.)
ORBX tracks the Global X Space Tech Index, which owns companies that earn at least 50% of their revenue from “critical segments of the upstream and downstream space sectors.” This includes rocket launch systems, reusable rockets, mission-critical space technology and components, satellite-enabled telecommunications and data, space transportation and exploration, and even space tourism.
“In a category where broader tech, telecom, or defense exposure can dilute the theme, ORBX aims to give investors a cleaner, more focused way to access the fast-commercializing space economy,” says Tejas Dessai, VP, Director of Thematic Research at Global X.
Global X Space Tech ETF currently owns about 35 stocks right now. Around 60% of its assets are used to own industrials, while the rest is in tech and communication stocks. The names should be familiar by now: Rocket Lab. AST SpaceMobile. Iridium. Viasat. It also owns shares in space exploration firm Intuitive Machines (LUNR)—another common large holding among space ETFs.
But tops above all of them is SpaceX, at around 20% of assets right now.
Before SpaceX went public, many people feared that their broad-market index funds would hold outsized portions of SPCX. That’s because many index funds are market cap-weighted, and SPCX’s nearly $2 trillion valuation at IPO immediately made it one of the market’s largest companies. However, many indexes account for the “float,” which is the number of shares actually available for public trading; SpaceX offered just a small fraction of its shares, so SPCX accounts for a much smaller weight in those funds than the company’s market cap would otherwise indicate. As an example, based on its market cap alone, SpaceX Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ) should be among the ETF’s top 10 holdings at a weight of about 3%. In reality, it’s closer to the 25th largest holding at only 1%.
However, whereas in the QQQ, SPCX is fighting with other trillion-dollar companies for assets, Global X Space ETF’s second-largest holding, Rocket Lab, is worth just $43 billion. The only reason SpaceX isn’t weighted even more heavily is because ORBX caps its largest weight at 20%.
Want to learn more about ORBX? Check out the Global X provider site.
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8. Corgi Space and Satellite Communications ETF
- Inception: May 6, 2026
- Assets under management: $1.5 million
- Expense ratio: 0.35%, or $3.50 per year on every $1,000 invested
The smallest (but not last) fund on this list is the actively managed Corgi Space and Satellite Communications ETF (DIPR).
DIPR is a pure-play space ETF—one that in theory could still hold a wider world of space investments, but for now is communicating a specific focus on, well, satellites and communications. Says provider CorgiFunds:
“The number of active satellites in orbit has approximately tripled since 2019. DIPR provides exposure across the space and satellite value chain: constellation operators providing broadband and Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity, launch companies, satellite manufacturers, Earth observation and geospatial platforms, and ground equipment and software.”
Unsurprisingly, SpaceX, Rocket Lab, and Viasat sit near the top of this roughly 30-stock portfolio. Also prominently placed are defense giant Lockheed Martin (LMT) and positioning specialist Garmin (GRMN). Industrials account for 57% of assets, followed by technology (29%) and communication services (14%).
The most noteworthy feature of CorgiFunds’ ETF is its fee. Despite being run by human managers, DIPR is charging just 0.35% annually, which is lower than all other space ETFs on this list—active and index alike.
However, so far, that hasn’t translated into assets. CorgiFunds’ offering launched at the same time VanEck’s fund did, but it has only mustered a little more than a million dollars in AUM. Should it be unable to attract more assets over the next couple of years, it could be at risk of closure.
Want to learn more about DIPR? Check out the CorgiFunds provider site.
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9. iShares U.S. Aerospace & Defense ETF
- Inception: May 1, 2006
- Assets under management: $12.5 billion
- Expense ratio: 0.37%, or $3.70 per year on every $1,000 invested
OK, I technically saved the biggest (by a lot) ETF for last, but that’s because it’s really just a tangential way to invest in space.
The iShares U.S. Aerospace & Defense ETF (ITA) is an index fund that exclusively holds companies in the aerospace and defense industries (and thus exclusively the industrial sector). These companies typically manufacture and sell commercial and military aircraft, avionics, weapons, defense systems, satellites, drones, and more. Thus, its 50 or so components are mostly the likes of GE Aerospace (GE), RTX, and Boeing.
There are still some space-first names in here, too, such as Rocket Lab and Virgin Galactic (SPCE). And given that SpaceX is an A&D company, it could join ITA someday, though the ETF currently doesn’t hold it.
What you won’t get with ITA are any of the communication services-sector companies you find in many of the other best space ETFs on this list. That and the lack of SPCX have resulted in much more stable returns for ITA during the current space-industry downturn … but it also means that ITA is among the most diluted ways to harness growth in space going forward.
In short: ITA is less a space ETF, and more an ETF that stands to modestly benefit from space expansion.
Want to learn more about ITA? Check out the iShares provider site.
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