By Jeff Foust
In today's edition: SpaceX share soar in Nasdaq debut, Avanti sells a GEO broadband payload, how AI is helping fill a worker shortage in aerospace and defense and more.
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Top Stories
Shares in SpaceX rose nearly 20% in their first day of public trading Friday. SpaceX went public on the Nasdaq exchange in an IPO that raised $75 billion for the company, selling shares at $135. Those shares closed trading Friday at $160.95, an increase of 19.2%. That valued the company at more than $2 trillion and made CEO Elon Musk the world's first trillionaire. The IPO, the largest in stock market history, provided the company with funding for its initiatives in launch, satellite connectivity and AI, although SpaceX has provided few specifics about how it plans to spend that capital. [SpaceNews]
SpaceX's surge came at the expense of many other publicly traded space companies. Shares in companies ranging from AST SpaceMobile to Rocket Lab fell between 6% and 12% in trading Friday, while Virgin Galactic fell 28%. Analysts said the declines may reflect profit-taking after their shares rose in recent weeks as well as a desire to move money into SpaceX. There are also concerns that the stocks may have become overvalued. In the case of Virgin Galactic, some speculate that traders may have confused its stock ticker, SPCE, with that of SpaceX, SPCX. [Reuters]
Avanti Communications is selling its newest GEO broadband payload, closing a chapter on the debt-fueled expansion that once defined the British satellite operator. The company announced an agreement last week to sell its Hylas-3 Ka-band hosted payload to Japan's Sky Perfect JSAT, which is in expansion mode and has three new GEO satellites on order. Hylas-3 is on a spacecraft launched in 2019 that also carries the EDRS-C payload for the European Data Relay System. A Sky Perfect JSAT spokesperson said the satellite, currently at 31 degrees east, would be relocated to cover more of Asia as part of the deal. The Hylas-3 sale follows mounting pressure on regional GEO operators from SpaceX's Starlink and other LEO constellations. Avanti has shifted focus toward partnerships rather than large satellite procurements, including a deal to integrate Telesat's planned Lightspeed LEO network with its GEO services. [SpaceNews]
U.S. production of solid rocket motors is rising, but not fast enough to meet the Pentagon's missile-defense program demands. A new report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies says solid rocket motors remain a bottleneck across the U.S. missile industrial base, even as the Pentagon prepares for a sharp increase in interceptor production. The study found that the air and missile defense interceptor industrial base isn't configured for a long conflict with high missile-expenditure rates. Shifts away from solid-fuel motors for space launch have also reduced the space sector's role as a stabilizing source of demand for solid motor suppliers. The report calls for stable demand signals, multiyear buying, direct investment in suppliers, requirements reform and broader acceptance of new suppliers. [SpaceNews]
Last week's Artemis 3 crew announcement also provided details about how Blue Origin and SpaceX will speed up development of crewed lunar landers. As part of the Artemis 3 announcement last week, SpaceX confirmed that its revised Starship lunar lander plans involve docking Starship with Orion in low Earth orbit, instead of around the moon, and using Starship to send Orion to lunar orbit. Doing so, both the company and NASA argue, improves crew safety while also reducing propellant demands on Starship. Blue Origin, meanwhile, is setting aside work on a "transporter" spacecraft for aggregating propellant in Earth orbit and transferring it to lunar orbit, and will instead use transfer stages derived from its Blue Moon Mark 1 lander. [SpaceNews]
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Other News
A small Chinese rocket launched eight satellites overnight. A Kinetica-1, or Lijian-1, rocket lifted off at 11:44 p.m. Eastern Sunday night from the Jiuquan spaceport. It placed eight high-resolution optical imaging satellites into orbit. This was the 14th launch of the Kintetica-1 solid-fuel rocket, carrying a combined 105 satellites. [Xinhua]
The Space Force is considering a new pad at Cape Canaveral for missile tests. The proposed Space Launch Complex 51 site, located just north of Port Canaveral, would be used for Army and Navy missile tests. It would replace Space Launch Complex 46, which the Space Force says is too close to Blue Origin's LC-36 to accommodate missile testing at the same time as New Glenn launch activities. [Orlando Sentinel]
The recent cancellation of three GEO satellites is another blow for space insurers. SES canceled two satellites in May that Intelsat had ordered before its acquisition, while Eutelsat canceled a GEO satellite order in April. The cancellations are a setback to space insurers given the central role GEO satellites have played in that field, providing about $500 million annually in premiums. Space insurers have also been struggling after claims about three times the size of this annual premium pool sent shockwaves across the industry in 2023, causing some insurers to pull out of the market. The number of insured launches is set to pick up significantly in 2027 and 2028, but after that insurers are weighing the effects that LEO constellations will have on the field. [SpaceNews]
In aerospace and defense, companies are using AI to help fill a worker shortage. Executives in these sectors increasingly see AI not as a replacement for workers but as a necessary tool for helping an overstretched industrial base build faster, scale production and compete with China. It is helping drive a wave of investment into agentic AI systems capable of assisting with engineering, testing, supply-chain management and manufacturing workflows. Companies hope the technology will compress development timelines that have frustrated the Pentagon for years. [SpaceNews]
Astronomers are worried orbital data centers will exacerbate the growing problem of satellite interference. Astronomers have spent the last several years raising concerns about the brightness of satellites in broadband constellations and how they impact groundbased astronomy. At a recent meeting, though, a leading astronomer said both the size of individual data center satellites, with giant solar panels and radiators, along with the sheer numbers of those satellites could make that interference problem much worse. SpaceX, which has proposed launching up to 1 million orbital data center satellites, provided more details last week about the design of its AI1 satellite, which will be 70 meters long and 20 meters tall when its arrays and radiators are deployed. SpaceX expects to start launching AI1 satellites by the end of next year. [SpaceNews]
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The Week Ahead
Monday:
Washington/Online: The National Academies host Review of Progress Toward Implementing the Decadal Survey-Thriving on Our Changing Planet to discuss progress on implementing the Earth science decadal survey. Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif.: Scheduled launch of a Falcon 9 carrying Starlink satellites at 10:38 a.m. Eastern.
Andøya, Norway: Rescheduled launch of Isar Aerospace's Spectrum rocket on its "Onward and Upward" mission at 4 p.m. Eastern. Monday-Tuesday:
Monday-Wednesday:
Monday-Thursday:
Monday-Saturday:
Tuesday:
Xichang, China: Anticipated launch of a Long March 3B with an undisclosed payload at 5:45 a.m. Eastern. International Space Station: Scheduled undocking of the SpaceX CRS-34 cargo spacecraft at 12:05 p.m. Eastern. Wenchang, China: Anticipated launch of a Long March 12 with an undisclosed payload at 10:45 p.m. Eastern. Jiuquan, China: Projected launch of a Kuaizhou 11 rocket with an unidentified payload at 11:40 p.m. Eastern. Tuesday-Thursday:
Wednesday:
Cape Canaveral, Fla.: Scheduled launch of a Falcon 9 carrying three AST SpaceMobile BlueBird satellites at 2:39 a.m. Eastern. Kourou, French Guiana: Scheduled launch of an Ariane 6 carrying 36 Amazon Leo satellites at 7:53 a.m. Eastern. Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand: Scheduled launch of an Electron rocket carrying a Synspective radar imaging satellite at 4:40 p.m. Eastern. Thursday:
Thursday-Friday:
Saturday:
Cape Canaveral, Fla.: Scheduled launch of a Falcon 9 carrying Globalstar replenishment satellites at 2:39 a.m. Eastern. Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif.: Scheduled launch of a Falcon 9 carrying Starlink satellites at 10 a.m. Eastern.
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