Adds analyst comment in paragraphs 7 and 11

By Pritam Biswas

Jan 16 (Reuters) - Satellite company York Space Systems said on Friday it was aiming for a valuation of up to $4.25 billion in its U.S. initial public offering, underpinning expectations of a robust year for new listings.

The Denver, Colorado-based company is seeking up to $544 million by selling 16 million shares priced between $30 and $34 apiece.

Activity in the U.S. IPO market has shown signs of strength towards the end of 2025 and into the new year, with analysts betting on a red hot pipeline for the listing hopefuls as investor interest resumes on the back of Federal Reserve rate cuts.

York Space, founded in 2012 by Dirk Wallinger, provides low-cost satellite platforms to its clients, including the U.S. Department of Defense.

The U.S. government has stepped up its reliance on private space companies for launches, satellites and exploration.

A December 2025 executive order, Ensuring American Space Superiority, urges agencies to prioritize commercial launch services, accelerate procurement and integrate private firms into national security space systems.

"Trump's Ensuring American Space Superiority order places a potentially larger demand signal and a dollar sign in front of a market that already has revenue, with an explicit push across civil, national security, and commercial," said Michael Ashley Schulman, partner at Running Point Capital ‍Advisors.

The company was valued at more than $1 billion in a majority stake sale to aerospace-focused buyout firm AE Industrial Partners in October 2022, Reuters reported.

AE Industrial-backed Firefly Aerospace FLY.O went public in 2025 in the largest U.S. listing by a space technology firm of the year, reflecting renewed investor interest in the sector as market conditions improved.

Elon Musk's SpaceX is set for an initial public offering in the United States in 2026.

"The potential SpaceX IPO later this year will be more influential and York's public listing could be a prelude to that excitement," Schulman said.

Goldman Sachs, Jefferies and Wells Fargo Securities are the lead book-running managers for the offering.

(Reporting by Pritam Biswas in Bengaluru; Editing by Alan Barona)

((Pritam.Biswas@thomsonreuters.com))