New York, May 23, 2026, 11:06 (EDT)
- Tema Space Innovators ETF finished Friday at $38.76, up 6.13% on the day and up around 12.3% for the week from last Friday’s close. U.S. stock markets are closed Monday for Memorial Day.
- Tema said its fund topped $1 billion in assets after 37 trading days. The fund’s page listed $1.42 billion in assets and a 10.24% SpaceX SPV holding as of May 22.
- SpaceX’s IPO paperwork and this Friday’s Starship launch are now the main events on the calendar for traders in space-related names.
Tema Space Innovators ETF jumped Friday, finishing the session up 6.13% at $38.76 before the long U.S. holiday. Investors kept grabbing for SpaceX exposure ahead of a possible record IPO. For the week, the ETF is up around 12.3% and saw 10.74 million shares change hands Friday.
Timing is key with U.S. markets shut Monday for Memorial Day. The NYSE-listed fund’s next regular session won’t come until Tuesday, giving traders a three-day break after a strong move in space stocks.
NASA, an exchange-traded fund that trades as a basket of securities like a stock, is turning into a stand-in for SpaceX in the market. It’s actively managed, so managers pick the holdings instead of tracking an index. The ETF owns shares in public space companies along with a private stake in SpaceX, which it gets through a special purpose vehicle set up just to hold private-company shares.
Tema said Thursday its fund topped $1 billion in assets under management just 37 trading days after it launched at the end of March with $1 million in seed capital. Steve Munroe, president of Tema ETFs, called NASA “an ETF benchmark for space investing.” Business Wire
Tema’s site showed NASA’s assets at $1.42 billion as of Friday. Its biggest holding was Rocket Lab at 10.71% of NAV, followed by SpaceX SPVs at 10.24%. Planet Labs, Intuitive Machines, and Firefly Aerospace made up 6.05%, 5.96%, and 5.50%, respectively.
NASA jumped 6.1% on Friday, ahead of the ARK Space & Defense Innovation ETF, up 2.8%, and Procure Space ETF, which added 4.9%. The gain came as the market zeroed in on NASA’s direct SpaceX position. ETF.com’s Sumit Roy said this week that NASA has now passed both UFO and ARKX to become the biggest space ETF, even though it joined the group later.
SpaceX’s IPO filing is behind the move. Reuters said Wednesday the company made its filing public and could be the first U.S. IPO to top $1 trillion, aiming for a $1.75 trillion valuation. “There is somewhat of a halo effect” around Elon Musk, and companies like this are “difficult to value” without a peer group, Reena Aggarwal, finance professor at Georgetown University, told Reuters. Reuters
Starship pushed things ahead Friday evening, with SpaceX’s upgraded rocket making it through a mostly successful test flight. The vehicle released mock satellites and splashed down in the Indian Ocean, despite dealing with some engine and booster trouble. “Another meaningful step forward,” said Kathleen Curlee, research analyst at Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology. Reuters
NASA got a boost from its largest public investment. Rocket Lab landed a $90 million U.S. Space Force contract to handle design, construction, integration and operation for two geostationary satellites with space-domain-awareness payloads. This is Rocket Lab’s first time taking on satellite production for geostationary orbit.
Tema’s approach has some trade-offs. The fund page notes that the SpaceX SPV is priced at transaction cost, so it doesn’t move during trading hours the way public names do. NASA finished Friday with a 0.87% premium to its net asset value, or NAV, which is the value of the fund’s positions at day’s end. That premium can shrink if buyers pull back.
Another risk hangs over the IPO. Reuters said Friday that SpaceX is looking at a staged system for early-share resales for some holders after the listing, instead of sticking to the usual six-month lock-up. Ali Perry, an attorney at Mayer Brown, told Reuters the plan could avoid a single “big lock-up cliff,” but also said the staggered setup just spreads out the impact. Reuters
Short week on the calendar, but activity isn’t slowing. Reuters says SpaceX is lining up a listing as soon as June 12, with its roadshow pegged for June 4 and share sale possible by June 11. For NASA, the next move isn’t about a closing price. It’s about whether demand for a public vehicle tied to private SpaceX holds up after the holiday break.
