[Stock in Focus] LK Samyang Rises on Growing Expectations for Space Industry Expansion

As of 9:40 a.m. on August 1, LK Samyang shares were trading at 2,350 won on the KOSDAQ market, up 21.26% from the previous closing price. This surge appears to be driven by heightened expectations for the space industry overall, following news that Sphere has signed a large-scale supply contract with SpaceX.

On this day, Sphere Corporation, a global supply chain management company specializing in aerospace special alloys, announced that it had signed a '10 years plus alpha (α)' long-term supply contract with SpaceX, the private space launch company led by Elon Musk, becoming the first global Tier 1 vendor to do so. As a result, the company's stock price hit the upper limit.

LK Samyang develops, manufactures, and sells interchangeable camera lenses used for photography and video shooting. It is the only company in Korea that designs, processes, assembles, and sells lenses, and is recognized as a global optical specialist. Leveraging over 50 years of accumulated technology since its founding, the company sells its products in more than 70 countries worldwide. In particular, since 2015, it has launched professional lenses for film production, earning recognition for its advanced technology.

In June of this year, LK Samyang successfully launched a next-generation AI star tracker for deep space navigation, co-developed with Telepix, an artificial intelligence total solution company for satellites, aboard SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket.

The next-generation AI star tracker for deep space navigation is an advanced autonomous navigation system designed to enable satellites in deep space?such as around the Moon and Mars, far from Earth?to determine their own position and perform navigation without communication support from ground stations. Previously, satellites needed to be continuously monitored and their orbits controlled from ground stations. However, this method had limitations due to the accumulation of errors and high dependence on ground-based control. By mounting a star tracker on a satellite, the satellite can calculate its own navigation, making this technology a key focus in deep space exploration.