Beam me up, Bezos.

Okay, I’m almost certain that line was never spoken. What a wasted opportunity…

Still, Wednesday served as another landmark moment in the burgeoning commercial space race.

William Shatner, 90, aka Captain Kirk of the original Star Trek television show, blasted off into space aboard one of billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin rockets.

At approximately 10:50 a.m. ET, the New Shepard suborbital rocket took off from the launchpad in West Texas, ascending roughly 65 miles into the atmosphere. And just like that, Shatner became the oldest person to go into space. The beloved television icon and his three crewmates experienced a brief period of weightlessness before coming back down.

All in all, the trip lasted a little over 10 minutes.

This may seem like a novelty to some of our more skeptical readers. I get it. But consider for a moment Shatner’s first reaction after coming back to Earth – and then think about the implications of commercial space travel.

“What you have given me is the most profound experience I can imagine… It’s extraordinary, extraordinary,” said Shatner after the mission, according to ABC News.

You can bet there will be more and more people lining up to follow in Shatner’s footsteps. And they’re going to pay up, big time.

But this is about much more than just space tourism. In just a moment, I’m going to dive into the impressive dollar amounts being plowed into the commercial space industry as a whole – and give you a couple of ideas to potentially profit…

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Things To Watch This Earnings Season

But first, I should note that we are entering a crucial period for the markets right now: earnings season.

Aside from Q3 numbers, which are expected to be good, all eyes will be on how companies are responding to the ongoing supply chain woes, rising input costs, and chronic labor shortages.

We’ve covered various aspects of these problems over the past few months.

Take the situation at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, for example.

More than 80 ships were waiting to unload cargo off the California coast last weekend. That’s moving in the wrong direction from when we originally highlighted this problem – and it’s expanding to other U.S. ports, too. (Reminder: these two ports handle 40% of cargo coming into the U.S. from overseas.)

Here’s a satellite image I found, courtesy of NASA (click the link below to view a larger version):

_{Source: NASA}

What was once a passing curiosity has turned into a crisis so dire that President Biden is intervening.

As CNBC notes, central to the plan are key commitments from port officials as well as workers unions to operate 24/7. Retailers such as Wal-Mart and Home Depot have also said they will ramp up off-hours efforts. And while these measures are better than nothing, as the article points out, it does not address the next link in the chain – i.e. the chronic shortage of truck drivers, who are needed to get that cargo to where it needs to go.

Meanwhile, a phenomenon economists are calling The Great Resignation continues. On Wednesday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that a stunning 4.3 million Americans quit their jobs in August. This comes as we learned last week that the unemployment rate decreased from 5.2% in August to 4.8% in September. The “quit rate” will be one to keep an eye on, particularly in the restaurant and retail industry. This may be short-term pain for the economy, long-term gain for employees, however. As The Atlantic points out:

Nearly 7 percent of employees in the “accommodations and food services” sector left their job in August. That means one in 14 hotel clerks, restaurant servers, and barbacks said sayonara in a single month. Thanks to several pandemic-relief checks, a rent moratorium, and student-loan forgiveness, everybody, particularly if they are young and have a low income, has more freedom to quit jobs they hate and hop to something else.

The article goes on to point out that many service industry workers may simply be saying “to hell with this” to themselves. It makes sense, I have to admit. As they tire of dealing with customers, who may not be on their best behavior after being told to stay at home for months on end, they seem to be opting to look for better-paying jobs or at least ones that offer a better lifestyle.

We’ll continue to monitor these situations and see how they play out into earnings season. In the meantime, tip your servers and bartenders well.

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Billions Are Flowing Into The Space Race — Here’s How You Can Profit

While watching nonagenarian TV stars blast into space is cool, what’s even more exciting is the amount of money pouring into the emerging commercial space sector. More than $231 billion in the last 10 years, in fact.

Space Capital, a venture capital firm that focuses on early-stage space technology, released a fascinating third-quarter report on space investment. You can go here to download the report, but I’ll give you the highlights…

With another $8.7B invested into 112 space companies in Q3, there has now been $231.2B of equity investment into 1,654 unique companies in the space economy over the past 10 years. VCs invested another $3.9B into 83 space companies in Q3, of which $2.0B went to U.S. companies. Infrastructure companies have already hit a new record, with $10.3B invested YTD (6% more than full year 2020), driven in part by SPACs.

While more investment in this is interesting, what’s even more interesting is increasing access in the public markets for individual investors like you and me.

The report notes that no less than six space companies were listed on market exchanges in Q3 through SPAC mergers. Seven more are on the horizon, according to the report. I won’t go into the mechanics of how SPACs work in this piece (although my colleague Jimmy Butts has covered this). But what’s important to know is that these vehicles, while opening up access for investors, can also be somewhat volatile.

Still, the main takeaway is that the space industry is gaining more and more traction. This is no longer in the realm of dreams within the pages of a SciFi book or television show. We’re talking about real business here, folks.

As my colleague Jimmy Butts has been telling his Top Stock Advisor subscribers for the better part of a year, institutional investors, tech companies, military firms, and other private institutions are piling money into the industry. They know the playbook, and they’re salivating at the returns that could follow.

Now, if you want to look into the growing list of publicly traded space-focused companies out there, that’s great. Just know that you’re taking a flier on an emerging industry that’s still in its infancy. It will be volatile. There will be growing pains.

But the potential rewards could be tremendous. So if you don’t want to be in the business of picking winners – at least not yet – then we recommend looking at two tickers: ARK Space Exploration & Innovation ETF (ARKX) and the Procure Space ETF (UFO). Both of these funds have their benefits and drawbacks, and each has different focuses on aspects of this industry.

Of the two, my colleague Jimmy Butts has a favorite that he shared with his Top Stock Advisor readers in a special report. And for those looking for even more potential upside, he’s also identified his absolute top equity pick for benefiting from the billionaire space race.

You can get all the details on his research in this emerging mega-industry right here.