Morgan Stanley says 2019 could ‘be the year for space’

Richard Carson | Reuters

The astronauts assigned to crew the first flight tests and missions of the Boeing CST-100 Starliner and SpaceX Crew Dragon acknowledge the media upon introduction at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, U.S., August 3, 2018. The astronauts are (L to R): Victor Glover, Robert Behnken, Michael Hopkins, Douglas Hurley, Eric Boe, Sunita Williams, Christopher Ferguson, Josh Cassada, and Nicole Mann.

Many on Wall Street are busy publishing 2019 market estimates but Morgan Stanley’s added an outlook on the space industry.

“We expect industry / technological milestones and capital formation will up the ante starting in 2019,” Morgan Stanley’s Adam Jonas wrote in a note to investors on Wednesday.

Jonas, along with other Morgan Stanley analysts, repeated the firm’s previous stance that the majority of investors “view the space economy as having little, if any, relevance to their portfolio,” he said. But Morgan Stanley has been telling clients to pay attention to space companies and will be hosting a “Space Summit” next month to prepare investors.

Morgan Stanley said in the report that 2019 could “be the year for space,” listing “key milestones and catalysts that we expect to develop.”

First on Morgan Stanley’s list: Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which is only a few weeks away from the first of two test flights for NASA’s Commercial Crew program. With the first crewed flight of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule scheduled for June, the company is set to become the first to launch U.S. astronauts from U.S. soil since 2011.

Boeing is also closing in on the first flight tests of its Starliner capsule for Commercial Crew, planned for later next year.

Morgan Stanley noted that SpaceX is building on its 2018 successes, including the first launch of the Falcon Heavy rocket, the test of its broadband satellite prototypes and key designations and awards from both NASA and the U.S. Air Force. Musk’s space venture has a $28 billion valuation – making it the third most valuable private company in the world.