Tens of billions of dollars in contracts await space industries as a result of America’s return to the moon.

It has finally occurred. NASA’s Orbit Launch System (SLS) has launched into space.

NASA contractors such as Boeing (BA -0.55%), Lockheed Martin (LMT 0.86%), Aerojet Rocketdyne (AJRD -0.12%), and Northrop Grumman (NOC 1.43%) have been working for more than a decade to make NASA’s goal of an interplanetary mega-rocket a reality. They’ve been working on SLS for so long that one of these companies had time to alter its name twice before the work was finished. (Northrop purchased SLS contractor Orbital ATK in 2017, shortly after Orbital ATK merged with Alliant Techsystems.)

SLS launched into orbit this year after three attempts and three months of delays due to technical issues and uncooperative weather. But everything worked out in the end.

3, 2, 1 – take off!

The 322-foot-tall white-and-orange mammoth space rocket lifted off from Pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 1:47 a.m. ET on Wednesday to begin the Artemis 1 mission, the first salvo in NASA’s return to the moon.

Over the next three weeks, the Orion space capsule, which launched atop SLS, will travel 40,000 miles past the moon before splashing down off the coast of California on December 11. There are no astronauts aboard the spaceship, but that’s kind of the point. The mission of Artemis 1 has two basic purposes. The first is to demonstrate that Orion is safe for astronauts to travel on. (For this purpose, Orion is carrying a number of high-tech, human-sized test dummies.) Second, to demonstrate that Orion’s heat shields are strong enough to withstand re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere following future moon missions.

Only when these items have been verified to NASA’s satisfaction will astronauts be allowed to travel on future Artemis missions. Only then will we be able to return to the moon.

Small steps and enormous jumps

Furthermore, even a successful Artemis project will merely “return” America to the moon. We’ve been there before, more than 50 years ago. While 50 years of technology improvement will allow us to do more on the next journey, NASA is still taking a relatively minor step toward investigating the remainder of the solar system.

However, for investors, Project Artemis represents a significant increase in the profits that space industries will receive in the next years.

I don’t want to get ahead of myself, but assuming everything goes as planned with Artemis 1, Artemis 2 is set to go to the moon and return – this time with astronauts – in May 2024. Artemis 3 will transport astronauts to the lunar surface for the first mission in 53 years one year later.

The Artemis project might require up to 20 total flights (some estimates put the number as high as 30), generating profits ranging from $20 billion (an extremely optimistic forecast) to $82 billion (a more reasonable cost) for lead contractors Northrop Grumman and Boeing to cover the launches alone.

And that’s only the beginning.

Astronauts will be housed on the moon in lunar homes. When they arrive, they will be moved around by moon rovers. Nuclear power plants will be used to keep them warm. An orbiting Lunar Gateway space station to give explorers orbital support. Exploring the moon will necessitate the construction of – and payment for – a full space infrastructure, giving several opportunities for space enterprises to obtain contracts on the moon.

Historically, NASA has taken the lead on programs like these, delegating individual tasks to private contractors while overseeing the overall operation. However, over the last decade, NASA has shifted toward more “commercial” models of operation, in which it hires private contractors to provide services from start to finish, such as SpaceX and Northrop Grumman conducting supply runs to the International Space Station and, more recently, SpaceX and Boeing transporting astronauts to and from the station.

These programs have resulted in significant savings. Indeed, Phantom Space Corporation CEO Jim Cantrell claims that “the private sector has demonstrated that they’re five, ten, twenty times more efficient with a dollar,” lowering the cost of individual space missions from $400 million to $50 million.

Given the savings to taxpayers from this method, as well as the enormous price tag projected for Project Artemis, which can most likely only be financed if costs are reduced, it is reasonable to expect that opportunities for space contractors – and space investors – will only rise over time.

What began with NASA’s small move back toward the moon foreshadows a massive increase in revenue for space stocks.

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