York Space Systems kicked off its public market debut Thursday with shares climbing to $38 on the New York Stock Exchange, an 11.7% pop from its $34 offering price that values the Denver-based satellite manufacturer at $4.75 billion. But CEO Dirk Wallinger isn't just celebrating the IPO - he's already pitching the company as a critical player in President Trump's ambitious Golden Dome missile defense project, which could balloon into one of the largest defense contracts in U.S. history.
York Space Systems just became the latest space tech company to ride the defense boom into public markets. Shares opened Thursday at $38 on the New York Stock Exchange, jumping 11.7% above the company's $34 offering price and landing the Denver-based satellite maker with a $4.75 billion valuation. But founder and CEO Dirk Wallinger was already looking past the IPO celebration to something much bigger - securing a slice of President Trump's Golden Dome.
"Golden Dome is essentially making disparate systems that weren't intended to talk to one another, talk to one another, which is what we do," Wallinger told CNBC's Morgan Brennan on the NYSE floor. "York's already delivering on that, so we're looking for the opportunity to deliver on the Golden Dome for our country."
It's a bold pitch, but York has the track record to back it up. The company has already built and launched 21 low-earth orbit satellites for the U.S. Space Development Agency as part of a September mission, adding to its 74 total missions since launching operations in 2012. York entered a contract with the Space Development Agency back in 2022, establishing itself as a trusted Pentagon partner well before Trump's Golden Dome announcement sent defense tech stocks soaring.
That timing could prove critical. Trump unveiled plans for the Golden Dome missile defense system in May with an initial $175 billion price tag, though the Congressional Budget Office suggests the project could eventually . The system aims to create an integrated defense network capable of intercepting threats - exactly the kind of complex, multi-layered infrastructure where York believes its expertise fits.
