The CNBC Changemakers returns. 50 women innovating and driving change across industries. Find out who made this year's list. Meet the new icons. The CNBC Changemakers, revealed Wednesday, starting in Squawk Box. York Space Systems has flown 74 missions to space. Now it's launching on Wall Street. The 14-year-old space and defense firm debuted on the New York Stock Exchange under ticker YSS. Its initial public offering was upsized, oversubscribed and priced at the top of the range, giving the company a $4.3 billion valuation. York Space Systems makes spacecraft, including for the U.S. Space Development Agency's flagship Low Earth Orbit Small Satellite Program, which is expected to be part of Golden Dome. CEO and founder Dirk Wallinger says going public will unlock more opportunity. York is really in a position now to really expand and grow. We have a first move of our advantage with providing complete solutions to our customers and I think this presents an opportunity for us to really expand on our capabilities and really do more. I mean this company was founded on the basis of we want to be the number one spacecraft solution provider in the world and we're determined to do it and being a public company will help people become more familiar with what we're doing and support our efforts to really really push forward and expand. York has been owned by AE Industrial Partners since 2022. The private equity firm, which also counts Firefly Aerospace and Redwire in its portfolio, will keep a majority stake. York hits the market as space excitement grows, with a planned summer SpaceX IPO poised to be the largest listing ever. On this episode, York's Dirk Wallinger on manufacturing, defense spending, Golden Dome, and more. I'm Morgan Brennan, and this is Manifest Space. Joining me now from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Dirk Wallinger. He is the CEO and founder of York Space Systems on a day where the company is going public. And Dirk, it's great to have you on. Welcome. Thank you for having me. Really appreciate the opportunity. OK, so you're poised for an IPO here today. You're joining me from the Stock Exchange. Oversubscribed, upsized offering and pricing at the high end of the range. Why does going public now matter so much? Well, I mean, York is really in a position now to really expand and grow. We have a first mover advantage with providing complete solutions to our customers And I think this presents an opportunity for us to really expand on our capabilities and really do more I mean this company was founded on the basis of we want to be the number one spacecraft solution provider in the world And we're determined to do it. And being a public company will help people become more familiar with what we're doing and support our efforts to really, really push forward and expand. Yeah, you've done 74 missions to space. Now you're launching here on Wall Street. What is being public enabled that being private didn't? Yeah, so it's going to enable us to kind of interact with the market more, express our vision, and have them kind of see where we're going. I think historically people kind of view us solely as a spacecraft manufacturer, but we're really a complete holistic solution. And that kind of turnkey solution is really what national defense needs, the commercial markets need as well. So we'll be able to tell that story a little bit better. People can understand where we're headed. and then people will see our successes and hopefully it'll bring a lot more value to our customers. So let's dig into that story a little bit more right now because you do do a lot of business with the Defense Department. You're part of a key program for the Space Development Agency as well. So when you talk about that holistic solution, what does that mean? Yeah, so we're really providing complete solutions for the customer. So in reality, the customer just needs solutions. They need their problems solved. And that's really what York's doing is we're, you know, from ground segment to operations of the satellite, manufacturer, launch services. Really, it's a complete thing, complete solution, and we're able to deliver that to the customer. And that's what they're looking for. We just need to be doing more of it. And I think everyone knows with national defense, we need to be doing a lot faster. And that's really where we fit as well. We'll be able to accelerate what we're delivering. And it goes beyond SDA. I mean, whether that's Space Systems Command, Missile Defense Agency, the intelligence community as well. We want to be able to provide these solutions very, very quickly at a price that is very affordable, which is really lacking in the segment, and that's what we're going to deliver on. So how does York Space System play in the Golden Dome Homeland Missile Defense program that is getting built out now? Yeah, so a lot of the missions that we're doing right now, transport layer, which is a communications layer, we're building that. We're also building targeting missions, advanced fire control missions as well. And so there's a wide variety of capabilities, and all of those are applicable to Golden Dome. So 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. And we can deliver on those solutions at scale. So Golden Dome is really our view is that it gonna be an injection into the system to grow significantly the capabilities that we have They just need to be in much larger quantities And so York already delivering on that and so we looking for the opportunity to deliver on Golden Dome for our country And of course, as we're having this conversation, just like the last time you and I spoke, which was last fall, I mean, you have a government that's poised for at least a partial government shutdown, potentially. So when it comes to the funding challenges, or maybe I should say the funding consistency from the government, how important is that? Yeah, I mean, you know, if we're going to deliver solutions and deliver them quickly, which is what Congress is asking for, what the government's asking for, it's important that we pass a budget. So, yeah, I mean, it's challenging. We don't when we don't pass a budget. I mean, York's fortunate in that we've got a very significant backlog. And so we'll continue to deliver solutions. But, you know, it does kind of do this. The stop start cycle is not, you know, super healthy for the supply chain. It's not super healthy for our country. And so, yeah, it will have impacts because new programs can't really start until Congress passes a budget. So hopefully they get together and come to some compromise and get a budget pass because it's really what's important for our country. U.S. demand versus international demand. How does that play out here and what does that mean for York? Yeah, so primarily we're delivering for the U.S. now. We do see opportunities internationally potentially to build similar solutions that we've already done for our allied partners. And so we're going to continue to evaluate. That's part of what this IPO means is the ability to expand into different markets where we can deliver on as well. But hopefully the U.S. continues to invest in our supply chain here in the U.S. So we hope that continues. But we see opportunity for international as well. But we'll need to see how they react and if other countries want their capability delivered. And your revenue grew almost 60% in the first nine months of last year. What does the path to profitability look like? I think it looks very promising. We're not supposed to give any guidance, but we're definitely on a pathway to profitability for sure. Our revenues continue to grow. We have good control over our fixed costs. And so, you know, that kind of divergence of revenue with costs, I think, is going to result in really promising results for the market and more specifically for York. Do you think we're going to look back on 2026 as an inflection point, especially as companies like yours go public and we perhaps make history this summer with a SpaceX IPO that could be, if it happens, the largest listing ever, period. Yeah, I mean, I think there's a lot of excitement in the market for defense tech and space, more specifically I think SpaceX entering the market is going to be a great it going to be great for everyone really We particularly interested in it as well because I think there a lot of similarities there right SpaceX delivers. That's what they do. And that's kind of where York fits, too. And so I think the market will recognize that, look, there's some defense tech companies out there that really deliver on solutions, and they happen to do it profitably, which obviously is great, too. So, you know, SpaceX coming in is really going to point to, you know, they're not all in the space sector. It's not all conjecture. There are companies who can deliver. And I think the market's going to start to recognize that and reward the companies who can come through. So in light of that, what do investors need to understand about York as it goes public here? And what do they need to understand about investing in the space sector as it grows? Yeah. So, you know, York specifically is, again, this turnkey solution that we're providing. I mean, yes, we manufacture platforms, but it's part of a much larger ecosystem, right? Our flight software capabilities, you know, on our platforms, you know, people kind of refer to it as the iOS of what we're doing. And we own that capability. We integrate that seamlessly with our mission operation centers. We also have close to 50 ground stations throughout the world. And so it's an integrated, complete solution, which is why, you know, people get such value out of what we're doing. And we do it at half the price of our competitors, right? And so that kind of ecosystem capability is what the country needs if we need to move faster and we need to move at faster schedules and at lower costs because that's really what we're doing. And so I think people will recognize that and then also see the differentiation. So there's some companies out there who are very early stages of development, still significant capital raises to fund operational expenses and or new technology. And so that's a bit of a differentiator for us in the sense that we're not doing that. We're scaling forward. We're not funding operations. We're funding getting better. And so that's a little bit of differentiation between what we're doing and a lot of the other companies on the market. And I think that that'll be recognized. Dirk Wallinger, founder and CEO of York Space Systems. Thank you so much for joining me on IPO Day. Congratulations. Thank you. I appreciate it. Thanks for having me. That does it for this episode of Manifest Space. Make sure you never miss a launch by following us wherever you get your podcasts and by watching our coverage on Closing Bell Overtime. I'm Morgan Brennan.
