The U.S. is going to send humans to Mars, President Donald Trump vowed during his inauguration on Monday, January 20th, providing 21st Century Americans an echo of President Kennedy’s dreamy 1962 “We choose to go to the Moon” speech.
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Speaking during his inaugural address, President Trump said, “We will pursue our Manifest Destiny into the stars,” promising American astronauts would plant the Stars and Stripes on the red planet.
Highly ambitious though it seems, it could signal a major shift in federal funding for space exploration, and it could be good news for Elon Musk, SpaceX and even the ARK Space Exploration and Innovation ETF (ARKX).
Underlining this sentiment, shares of Intuitive Machines (LUNR), whose lunar lander Odysseus took a SpaceX rocket to the moon in early 2024, jumped almost 6% in pre-market trade on Tuesday.
The Moon Is a Distraction
Trump supporter Musk, the CEO of SpaceX as well as Tesla (TSLA), wants NASA to abandon plans to return to the moon and focus instead on a manned mission to Mars.
Congress reauthorized NASA’s budget, with a focus on moon exploration and a return to its surface by 2027, last year.
However, the comments from President Trump could see a shift in focus and redirect federal funding to companies willing to pursue his ambitions. SpaceX, with around 140 rockets launched into space last year, is the clear leader in terms of commercial space technology.
As such it could see NASA leaning into towards a more commercially driven program using the likes of SpaceX to deliver services and technology, such as it does to transport people and materials to the International Space Station. By contrast, utilizing NASA’s existing Artemis moon landing program could be more expensive and lead to delays.
Anyway, Musk is not interested in the moon. “We’re going straight to Mars. The Moon is a distraction,” he wrote on X this year.
Nothing’s Gonna Stop Starship Now
With the aim of reaching Mars, SpaceX is developing Starship, the largest rocket ever built. However it’s not been plain sailing, with the experimental craft exploding over Puerto Rico during its seventh flight last week.
Meanwhile, federal regulators have limited its testing due to environmental concerns about contaminated water discharge in the area around the launch site. But Trump’s new administration could loosen these rules as well as open up more in federal funding for companies such as SpaceX, LUNR and many others in the space.
What Is the Best Space Stock to Buy?
For investors interested in investing in space exploration, we have rounded up some of the top ARKX holdings using the TipRanks Stocks Comparison tool.
