spacetoday.net: Shares in space companies rise on Bush policy rumors

Posted: Sat, Jan 10, 2004, 6:36 AM ET (1136 GMT)
Stocks in some space companies rose dramatically Friday on news that President Bush would announce a new space policy next week that will include human missions to the Moon and Mars. Shares in Spacehab, a company that provides cargo and engineering services primarily for NASA, closed Friday up nearly 88% at $3.158/share; at one point during the day shares were up over 100%. Shares in SpaceDev, a commercial space exploration company, closed Friday up over 71% at $1.75/share; it was up nearly 100% earlier in the day. Larger companies that have significant space stakes also rose, but to smaller degrees: Orbital Sciences Corporation closed up 3.5% and Lockheed Martin was up 0.59%, but Boeing closed down 0.51%. Analysts attributed the gains to beliefs among investors that the impending space policy would pump more money into NASA, which would then trickle down to these companies.