Rocket Lab (NASDAQ: RKLB) and Viasat (NASDAQ: VSAT) posted modest gains this week, outperforming the SpaceX-tracking SPCX fund as broader space-sector sentiment remained fragile.
RKLB gained 0.8% on the week while VSAT edged up 0.3%, with both names outpacing SPCX’s 0.9% decline during the same period.
AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ: ASTS) led losses across the group with a 4.7% drop, while Planet Labs (NYSE: PL) fell 3.5%, underperforming even as both companies announced operational milestones.
SpaceX reported revenue surging 161% to $14.58 billion year-over-year, with net income reaching $4.4 billion and its AI business generating $7.56 billion in revenue alone.
The company’s Starlink service reached 13.6 million subscribers, adding further scale to what is already the world’s largest commercial satellite constellation.
Elon Musk weighed in on formal Tesla merger discussions, saying “I think it would be a good idea, but it’s really up to the special committees of both companies,” though any deal would require board and shareholder approvals.
SpaceX is also reportedly exploring access to at least 80,000 U.S. cellular sites as it evaluates building a fourth nationwide wireless carrier, with TD Cowen estimating the terrestrial network could cost more than $80 billion.
Despite the strong financials and strategic headlines, SPCX shares ended Thursday approximately 7% above their $135 June IPO price, with Stocktwits sentiment climbing to “extremely bullish” from “bearish” a week earlier.
Rocket Lab’s advance came as the company outlined plans for a new static-fire stack-test facility for its Electron and HASTE vehicles that would support more than 100 launches in backlog and a higher launch cadence in 2027.
The company expects to double its testing capacity and reduce stack-test time from two to three days down to less than a single day, a significant operational improvement heading into a busier launch schedule.
“Demand for Electron and HASTE missions continues to grow and our manifest has never been busier,” Rocket Lab said, as the company also completed Electron’s 98th mission on Friday.
Rocket Lab’s Neutron program continued to attract attention after SpaceX reportedly declined to bid on three future military satellite missions, with no rivals stepping in, a gap Neutron could eventually address despite its debut slipping into 2027.
Viasat’s gains were anchored by the successful deployment of its Maxwell satellite aboard SpaceX’s Bandwagon-5 mission, which advanced work under two NASA Communications Services Project awards totaling $81 million.
Maxwell will conduct five months of orbital demonstrations through March 2027, testing Ka-band and L-band relay services as NASA prepares to retire its Tracking and Data Relay Satellite fleet.
Viasat also filed a challenge at the Federal Communications Commission asking the agency to reject overseas spectrum authority sought by AST SpaceMobile, citing interference concerns and frequency-allocation restrictions.
AST SpaceMobile targeted initial, intermittent coverage before year-end across the United States, Canada, Japan, the UK, and Saudi Arabia, reporting more than 60 gateways deployed, installed, or in planning worldwide.
The company said more than 3,000 U.S. coverage cells were enabled and that it was targeting 5,600 before year-end, supported by partnerships with over 60 mobile operators representing more than 3 billion subscribers.
AST also welcomed an agreement by Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telefonica, and Vodafone to explore a joint European mobile-satellite spectrum bid targeting a market of more than 500 million mobile subscribers, though no satellite provider has yet been selected.
Planet Labs launched its Pelican-12 satellite on the same Bandwagon-5 mission, marking its 25th satellite launched in 2026 and fifth Pelican, while also securing a NASA data-evaluation task order covering more than 250,000 square kilometers of Tanager hyperspectral imagery.
The second-generation Pelican carries Nvidia Jetson technology for onboard AI processing and is designed for 30-centimeter-class imagery, an improvement over the 50-centimeter resolution of the first generation.
