Top 3 SPAC Targets – Space Missions
After a quiet stretch in the SPAC market, we pressed pause on this column. But with deal flow picking up, targets getting more creative, and sponsors back in hunting mode, it’s the right time to bring back one of our favorites: the Top 3 SPAC Targets. Read on to see who we picked for private targets participating in some near-term space missions.
As the Artemis II lines up for its re-entry and splashdown tomorrow evening, the excitement generated by its journey has prompted SPACInsider to move up the publication of its bi-weekly Top 3, in part because of the ways that the mission has re-opened imaginations for SPAC transactions that could be involved in the next mission.
Space hardware de-SPAC Intuitive Machines (NASDAQ:LUNR) is already involved in the Artemis program, having placed two landers on the Moon. Each of these had a few glitches that prevented them from fully executing their planned operations, but they were nonetheless groundbreaking successes for commercial space operations in general.
NASA plans to deliver two more Intuitive Machines landers to the Moon through 2027 and the company’s stock has soared +31% over the past month along with the enthusiasm that has zoomed along with Artemis II, last closing at $23.39. Other space de-SPACs have had even better months with Satellogic (NASDAQ:SATL) zipping +145%, BlackSky (NASDAQ:BKSY) +40%, and Planet Labs +36% just to name a few.
Astrobotic
For SPACs hoping to join the Artemis II story specifically, there are still some ways to get aboard.
NASA has partnered with a range of commercial vendors for the various facets of its Artemis program with most of the big lift coming from majors like Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT) and L3Harris (NYSE:LHX). But, 14 other companies have specifically been tapped to build modules, vehicles and landers for use on the Moon alongside Intuitive Machines under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPSP) program.
The only one of these to advance far enough to be included in a scheduled mission but that is not already a listed entity or a non-profit is Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic. Its Griffin-1 mission is set to land on the Moon with Astrobotic’s FLEX Lunar Innovation Platform and a CubeRover along with third-party payloads during a launch window opening in July 2026.
The company’s Griffin lander platform overall is designed to offer clients delivery to the Moon for starkly low prices. It aims to charge $300,000 per kilogram (kg) to put payloads into lunar orbit, $1.2 million per kg to land it on the Moon and $4.5 million per kg to drive it somewhere further from the landing site on an Astrobotic rover.
The Griffin-1 mission will be the first dress rehearsal for this system, and, in the future, it expects to roll out rover systems that can drive up to 6 kg of client payloads around on the lunar surface at a time.
Should everything proceed according to plan, this summer’s mission could provide for fruitful timing to make Astrobotic equity tradable by retail investors through a pending SPAC combination. The company has been very capital efficient to this point, raising only about $72 million in outside funding, according to Deal Room, with most of this coming from direct grants for work from NASA and other government entities since it spun out from Carnegie Mellon University in 2007.
Loft Orbital
Loft Orbital has been another trailblazer in the growing market for rideshares aboard satellites and other space-bound systems.
Originally founded in Toulouse, France, Loft has primarily drawn work from the European Space Agency (ESA), the French government and other European clients, but it has recently expanded into the US market by opening offices in San Francisco and Colorado.
Its primary business model has been to offer mission-agnostic infrastructure that can shape client hardware and payloads to work with its standardized satellite platform. Now, in addition to picking up more classified US government work, it has developed an on-orbit AI system.
This puts machine-learning processors and low-latency edge computing in orbit for clients with an eye to being adaptable to new mission sets long after they have been launched. Functionally, this means that Loft Orbital clients can task its existing satellite network for missions via its web-based user interface even if the client has had no prior experience with satellite operations.
Having an offering that makes the company a space-AI sandwich seems destined to excite some interest on the open market, and the timing could be right for Loft’s existing investor base as well. Loft reached unicorn status in January 2025 with its $170 million Series C that brought it to a $1 billion valuation, according to TechCrunch.
By that time, it had sold out space on 30 satellites with $500 million in lifetime bookings. Now could be the time to provide liquidity to the various venture capital investors it has added to the cap table through seven funding rounds and solidify its US market entry with a launch onto an American exchange.
Isar Aerospace
But, while companies like Loft have been bridging the gap between the European and American space industries, significant resources have also been going into boosting European firms that are stepping up as direct competitors.
Germany-based Isar Aerospace has been developing a rocketry platform to rival the likes of SpaceX and RocketLab (NASDAQ:RKLX) in the US and it will be put to a big test soon. Later today, Isar Aerospace will enter a launch window for the second flight and qualification mission for its Spectrum rocket.
Its inaugural launch successfully blasted off from its Andøya Space facility and reached orbit in March 2025. This next flight will be its first to potentially deliver satellite payloads for clients. This mission is set to haul six cubesat payloads for European clients into orbit and its Spectrum rocket is designed to be able to bring a full metric ton’s worth of payloads to low-earth orbit.
This next critical mission has already been scrubbed once before, but not due to any malfunctions on its end, but rather due to an unauthorized boat entering the blast area during its short launch window.
Assuming it can keep the wandering boats clear this time around, Isar has a good chance of picking up the pace with its next launches as it has found a number of sources of efficiency on its manufacturing end. Many of Spectrum’s most complex parts are made via automatic additive manufacturing processes and its primary structure is made up of lightweight carbon composites. This also makes its rockets more fuel efficient and keeps costs down on a per-launch basis.
Via one such future launch, Isar plans to place Astrascale’s 520 kg ELSA-M spacecraft into orbit, which has been designed to capture and remove an end-of-life Eutelsat satellite. Continuing work for Astroscale’s debris removal operations could provide Isar some steady, if unsexy work as the trashman of the cosmos.
Launch pace is an important indicator of how serious a company can be in this industry and if Isar can continue to get quick turnarounds on its next missions there is the opportunity for significant upside for investors riding with it. Rocket Lab completed its 85th launch to date last month carrying payloads for the ESA and it today trades above $67 with a market cap of about $38.6 billion.
That’s nearly 10x growth from its $4.1 billion pro forma valuation in its 2021 combination with Vector. Should Isar decide the time is now, a SPAC deal could similarly see its investors catch some of the sizable headroom it has right now above it after its last capital raise placed its private valuation at roughly $1 billion.