Tony's ETF Buyer's Guide: Investing in the Space Industry

The established space ETFs

The first fund I’m looking at is the Procure Space ETF

, which admittedly has one of the more perfect ETF tickers out there. The fund launched back in April 2019 and charges a 0.75% expense ratio to track the S-Network Space Index.

If you wanted pure-play publicly traded space exposure, UFO is still probably one of the cleanest options on the market. The portfolio holds most of the major publicly traded names tied directly to the space economy. Current top holdings include Rocket Lab, Planet Labs, Viasat, Globalstar, MDA Space, Sirius XM, EchoStar, Iridium Communications, Intuitive Machines, and Firefly Aerospace.

Looking through the ETF Central screener data, UFO was not always this sizable. For much of its existence, the ETF more or less drifted along quietly. This is actually a pretty good example of a thematic ETF idea launching well ahead of investor appetite.

But that changed dramatically this year. UFO now sits around $818 million in assets under management, and year-to-date alone, it has attracted over $500 million in inflows. That is a massive resurgence and tells me investor appetite for the space theme has finally arrived, even for older products like UFO.

Competing against it at the exact same 0.75% expense ratio is ARK Space Exploration & Innovation ETF

, the actively managed offering from ARK Invest. ARKX launched in March 2021 as part of Cathie Wood’s lineup of innovation-focused funds.

Unlike UFO, though, ARKX is not really a pure-play space ETF. While there is overlap in holdings such as Rocket Lab, ARKX broadens out significantly into aerospace, drones, automation, and enabling technologies. You see holdings like AeroVironment and Archer Aviation, which focus more on drones and VTOL aircraft, respectively.

The portfolio also includes companies supporting broader aerospace and defense infrastructure, including L3Harris Technologies and Teradyne, along with some Magnificent Seven exposure through Amazon and Alphabet.

So, if your goal is concentrated pure-play space exposure, ARKX may not fully scratch that itch. But it is still a meaningful way to access the broader aerospace and space infrastructure buildout theme. And despite its more diversified mandate, it remains very well capitalized at roughly $893 million in AUM.

The up-and-comers

The first is the Global X Space Tech ETF

, which tracks a proprietary benchmark of the same name spanning 29 companies involved in rocket launch systems, mission-critical technology components, orbital transport systems, software and data solutions, satellite telecommunications, and space tourism and exploration.

There is substantial overlap between ORBX and UFO, although the weightings differ materially. For example, ORBX is heavily concentrated in Rocket Lab, which currently makes up roughly 22% of the portfolio. Sector-wise, the fund is dominated by industrials at around 64% of assets, followed by communication services and then information technology.

Now, remember what I mentioned earlier about the fundamentals of the space theme still being fairly immature. Global X actually publishes aggregate portfolio metrics for ORBX, and they paint a pretty speculative picture.

The portfolio currently averages only about a 2.1% return on equity, which tells me many of these businesses are still struggling to generate meaningful profitability. Despite that, the portfolio trades at elevated valuations, including an average price-to-book ratio around 6.6x and an average price-to-earnings ratio north of 294x. So yes, this is definitely a speculative growth-oriented ETF.

One thing ORBX does have going for it, though, is price. At a 0.50% expense ratio, it undercuts both UFO and ARKX by 25 basis points. Since launching on April 14th, 2026, the ETF has grown to roughly $16 million in assets under management.

The newer fund attracting far more attention, however, is the Tema Space Innovators ETF

. This ETF is actively managed and carries a 0.94% expense ratio, though Tema ETFs is currently waiving part of the fee to bring the net expense ratio down to 0.87%. So far, NASA has grown to roughly $397 million in AUM, and a huge reason for that is one specific feature: exposure to SpaceX.

Importantly, the ETF does not directly hold SpaceX shares on its own cap table. Instead, the exposure is obtained through a special purpose vehicle, or SPV, which currently accounts for about 11.87% of the ETF’s net asset value. Under SEC liquidity rules, ETFs generally cannot hold more than 15% of assets in illiquid investments, so the allocation still remains comfortably below that threshold.

Outside of the SpaceX exposure, the portfolio looks fairly similar to UFO and ORBX. Major holdings include Rocket Lab, Planet Labs, Intuitive Machines, Firefly Aerospace, and AST SpaceMobile. Country exposure overwhelmingly favors the United States at roughly 58% of the portfolio, while sector allocations are again heavily overweight in industrials at approximately 50%.

Please note this article is for information purposes only and does not in any way constitute investment advice. It is essential that you seek advice from a registered financial professional prior to making any investment decision.