British billionaire Richard Branson traveled to the edge of space, about 55 miles above Earth, on Sunday. Next week, Amazon (
AMZN
) founder Jeff Bezos is scheduled to go to space in a rocket from his space company Blue Origin.
Unlike Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo, Blue Origin’s New Shepard is a rocket with vertical landing and takeoff, which will take Bezos more than 62 miles above sea level, beyond the Kármán line that some organizations define as the edge of space. However, Richard Branson is officially an astronaut per NASA’s definition of space which starts at 50 miles above Earth’s surface.
These space flights by billionaires are expected to boost demand for space tourism. More than 1,600 people have already paid deposits to Virgin Galactic (
SPCE
), per FT. Elon Musk, founder of Tesla (
TSLA
) and SpaceX, is one of them. Virgin plans to start commercial space flights next year and increase to about 400 flights a year.
Virgin’s shares plunged yesterday after the company announced plans to raise up to $500 million for its spaceship fleet, but are still up more than 70% this year.
The global space industry could generate revenues of $1.1 trillion or more in 2040, per Morgan Stanley, thanks mainly to declining launch costs and increasing use of satellite based navigation.
Cathie Wood’s ARK Space Exploration & Innovation ETF (
ARKX
) is one of the most successful launches of 2021. The Procure Space ETF (
UFO
) is the first pure-play space ETF. The SPDR S&P Kensho Final Frontiers ETF (
ROKT
) holds companies associated with exploration of outer space and deep sea.
To learn more about these ETFs, please watch the short video above.
Bitcoin, Like the Internet Itself, Could Change Everything
Blockchain and cryptocurrency has sparked one of the most exciting discussion topics of a generation. Some call it the “Internet of Money” and predict it could change the way money works forever. If true, it could do to banks what Netflix did to Blockbuster and Amazon did to Sears. Experts agree we’re still in the early stages of this technology, and as it grows, it will create several investing opportunities.
Zacks’ has just revealed 3 companies that can help investors capitalize on the explosive profit potential of Bitcoin and the other cryptocurrencies with significantly less volatility than buying them directly.
See 3 crypto-related stocks now >>
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