🚀 Space Stocks Are Red-Hot in 2025—Will This IPO Blast Off or Crash?

Wall Street's latest obsession isn't AI or crypto—it's cosmic. Space stocks are surging as investors chase the next frontier, but one question looms: Can this hyped-up IPO actually escape Earth's gravity?

Here's why the market's gone orbital.

Fueling the frenzy: Private space ventures are no longer sci-fi fantasies. With lunar mining contracts and Mars tourism on the horizon (literally), analysts project the sector could grow 300% by 2030. But skeptics warn most 'space stocks' still burn cash faster than a rocket burns hydrogen.

The IPO in question? Insiders whisper it's backed by ex-NASA engineers and promises asteroid mining tech—though the prospectus suspiciously avoids mentioning how they'll bypass the 'astronomically expensive' R&D phase.

Bottom line: This could be the next SpaceX... or just another Virgin Galactic—overpromising, underdelivering, and leaving retail investors floating in zero-G without a spacesuit. As always on Wall Street, the smart money's already positioned—while the rest of us get to 'enjoy' the volatility ride.

Image source: Getty Images.

Introducing iRocket

iRocket bills itself as "a next-generation reusable space rocket developer" aiming to "capture a significant share of the global launch and propulsion market" using "patented MACH-i Landing Engine technology" to create a new class of liquid-fueled reusable rockets that it calls Shockwave. Additionally, iRocket says it has expertise in solid rocket motors, which it will offer the military for use in missiles and interceptor rockets as well as using it for commercial rocket boosters.

This space start-up says it already has $1 billion in letters of intent and memoranda of understanding with several potential customers that want to launch national security and commercial satellites on its rockets. Furthermore, iRocket says it's targeting a global space economy worth $1.8 trillion over the next decade.

Up until this week, however, the number of contracts that iRocket put specific names and numbers to was considerably more modest -- one Cooperative Research and Development Agreement with the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory worth $18 million, and another "Tactical Funding Increase" contract with the Space Force worth only $1.8 million. Both of these contracts, by the way, appear to have been signed back in 2023.

Nevertheless, with a little help from BPGC Acquisition Corp., "a special purpose acquisition company sponsored by The Hon. Wilbur Ross, the 39th U.S. Secretary of Commerce," iRocket plans to hold an IPO in the fourth quarter of 2025 to offer its stock to the public.

iRocket's SPAC IPO

iRocket values itself at $400 million pre-IPO and "before potential earnouts based on share price performance" (which will presumably accrue to BPGC and other pre-IPO investors). Helping the company reach that valuation, and helping to make the IPO a success, will be one apparently new contract iRocket just announced on Monday. Specifically, iRocket says it will provide up to 30 rockets to launch satellites for new Saudi Arabian space company SpaceBelt KSA over a period of five years -- and be paid up to $640 million for the work.

(It's unknown, however, whether SpaceBelt KSA actually has any satellites built. And iRocket does not currently have a qualified rocket to launch them.)

In an SEC 8-K filing, BPGC informs that it is a Cayman Islands company, and it's apparently not yet listed on a stock exchange. This is curious if true, because the ordinary logic behind a SPAC IPO is that it simplifies the listing process for a privately owned operating business going public by reverse-merging it into a "blank check" SPAC that doesn't actually conduct business but is already publicly traded.

Nevertheless, while some sources seem to think BPGC is publicly traded already and listed on the NYSE under ticker symbol ROSS, I can find no record of such a stock existing. Furthermore, CNBC reports the companies "intend" to list on the Nasdaq after merging -- which WOULD appear to confirm that BPGC is not in fact already publicly traded.

This mystery is further complicated by an intricate transaction described in the 8-K, which says BPGC plans to merge with four other companies (two of which appear to be variations of iRocket), ultimately resulting in a new stock valued at $11.50 a share, or perhaps $10 with attached warrants to purchase additional shares at $11.50 each.

How much the stock actually ends up costing investors won't be known until IPO day, when the shares begin trading later this year.

Should you buy the iRocket IPO?

Which brings us to our real question today: If and when this SPAC IPO happens, should you buy iRocket stock? And my simple answer is: No.

Between the strange lack of announced contracts (up until just this week) to support iRocket's assertion that it has $1 billion in business lined up, and the overly (intentionally?) complex nature of the transaction that will bring iRocket public, this particular SPAC IPO has my Spidey senses tingling. It may all be on the up and up, but it also may not be.

Worst case, investors should lose nothing by waiting until the IPO has happened and taking a good hard look at iRocket's published financials before deciding whether to buy. If everything looks kosher at that point, by all means, go ahead and buy iRocket stock.

In the meantime, though, my advice is simply to stay away.