Rocket Lab Soars 12% on $8 Billion Iridium Takeover, AST SpaceMobile and Planet Labs Rise 10%

5 days ago 6

David Moadel

Mon, June 29, 2026 astatine 8:46 AM CDT 4 min read

Quick Read

Rocket Lab's $8 cardinal Iridium acquisition lifted RKLB 12% and helped propulsion ASTS and PL up 10%, recovering portion of a ~45% prior-month selloff.
Iridium brings $872M successful revenue, $495M successful EBITDA, and 2.55 cardinal subscribers, attaching hard currency travel to Rocket Lab's motorboat and manufacturing business.
RKLB and ASTS transportation precocious betas truthful volatility is simply a concern, and the Rocket Lab woody inactive needs shareholder and regulatory support earlier a mid-2027 close.
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Space stocks are catching a bid Monday greeting aft Rocket Lab (NASDAQ:RKLB) unveiled a definitive statement to get Iridium Communications (NASDAQ:IRDM) successful a cash-and-stock woody carrying an endeavor worth of astir $8 billion. Rocket Lab banal is up 12% to $95 successful aboriginal trading.

A nighttime photograph captures a rocket launching, a superb achromatic plume of occurrence and sparks erupting from its basal arsenic it ascends. Thick, billowy clouds of achromatic and grey fume engulf the launchpad, obscuring concern facilities successful the foreground. The entity supra is dark, with hints of clouds illuminated by the launch.

The woody validates consolidation crossed the outer economy, and peers are riding the momentum. AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS) banal is up 10% to $78 and change, portion Planet Labs (NYSE:PL) banal is up 10% to $29.90.

The rally cuts against a brutal agelong for the group. Rocket Lab banal had fallen 44% implicit the anterior month, portion Planet Labs banal was down 46% and AST SpaceMobile banal was down 45% implicit the aforesaid window. Today's gains are starting to repair immoderate of that damage.

Rocket Lab Buys Iridium successful $8 Billion Vertical Integration Play

Under the terms, Iridium holders volition person $54 per share, consisting of $27 successful currency positive Rocket Lab communal banal based connected an speech ratio with a collar banded from $67.50 to $112.50. Both boards person unanimously approved the transaction, which is expected to adjacent successful mid-2027.

The strategical logic is casual to understand. Rocket Lab gets a profitable, recurring-revenue outer communications web with much than 2.55 cardinal subscribers crossed government, defense, aviation, and maritime markets, positive globally coordinated L-band spectrum and direct-to-device capabilities. Iridium generated $871.7 cardinal successful gross and $495 cardinal of operational EBITDA successful 2025.

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To money the currency portion, Rocket Lab secured a $3.6 cardinal 364-day elder secured span word indebtedness committedness from Deutsche Bank and Wells Fargo. CEO Sir Peter Beck declared it "a defining infinitesimal for the abstraction industry."