In the middle of the 20th century, the “race to space” was nosed out between  nations, and no investors were able to engage commercially in this highly sensitive political affair.  Nowadays, space technology offers various ways for investors to invest their money, from satellite  technology to space tourism, with the latter currently standing on the verge of a breakthrough.  Investment pioneer Vontobel now launched an index certificate that tracks the performance of companies  active in space technology. All companies are comprised in a passive and rules-based index, the Solactive  Space Technology Index, which utilizes Solactive’s ARTIS® technology to pick the most suitable  constituents for the index.  

Astronautics and space technology is a billion-dollar market. Growing massively in the past few years, the  global space industry generated a revenue of more than USD 518 billion 1in 2019. Spearheading the  development is space tourism, with the first commercial flight transporting only civilians scheduled at Q4 in  2021. Developments in space technology are happening at a fast pace. Individual Investors often cannot keep  up with the quick progress, making investing in space a complex endeavor. To aid investors with their space centric investment, Solactive developed its Solactive Space Technology Index. 

The Solactive Space Technology Index 

The Solactive Space Technology Index is a representation of companies that have business operations in the  space industry. Potential companies must, therefore, provide services deemed to suit the theme of space  technology, such as providing and operating satellites, space probes, space launches, space flight and tourism,  as well as space stations and space exploration. The selection of the Solactive Space Technology Index’s constituents is based on Solactive’s proprietary Natural Language Processing Engine ARTIS®. ARTIS® utilizes  advanced algorithms to parse high volumes of public documents evaluating companies’ exposure to various  themes or topics. The sophisticated procedure not only detects potential index constituents considering a  firm’s exposure to a theme but also ranks its importance to the very subject or industry. Additionally, the index  features an ESG screening evaluated by Bank Vontobel AG.

“To identify companies affiliated in space technologies is a complex endeavor for investors. Utilizing our  ARTIS® technology, we were able to detect promising index constituents with a possible stellar performance,”  comments Timo Pfeiffer, Chief Markets Officer at Solactive. “We are, at the moment, only at the advent of the  human era of leaving our home planet and exploring space. Hence, innovation potential in this fairly new  industrial sector is enormous.” 

Heiko Geiger, Head Flow Product Distribution at Vontobel, comments: “We are very happy to enable investors  to engage in commercial space technology with our new open end tracker certificate on the Solactive Space  Technology Index NTR (WKN VQ7BWA) at the right point in the space-time continuum.”