Biotech catalyst, news and analysis PDUFA tracker
Between late May and July 29, 2026, RKLB, ASTS, LUNR and RDW lost 60-75% of their value, then rallied 35-75% in seven sessions. Nine defense names beat and raised guidance. Real reversal, or dead cat bounce? The next earnings decide.
A plain-English guide to the economics of reusable rockets: why refurbishing beats rebuilding, how cost-per-kg collapsed, where SpaceX ($SPCX), Blue Origin, China's Long March 10B and Rocket Lab ($RKLB) sit on the reuse ladder, a reusable triage for launch news, and what China's first booster catch does and doesn't change. Educational, not investment advice.
Why space stocks pulled back in July 2026: profit-taking after a huge run, capital rotating to the newly public SpaceX, insider selling at Rocket Lab, the Rocket Lab-Iridium deal and the company-specific Planet Labs case. Educational, no recommendations.
The public space sector just received a concentrated set of catalysts: Rocket Lab is trying to buy an operating satellite communications network, AST SpaceMobile has placed its next BlueBird batch on the launch calendar, and NASA has selected Rocket Lab for dedicated Sun/Earth science missions. Together, these updates show how the investable space trade is moving beyond launch hype and into infrastructure, networks, services, and execution.
The June space trade is no longer being priced stock by stock. Planet Labs, Intuitive Machines, Satellogic, AST SpaceMobile and Rocket Lab are being traded as one high-beta space basket — and the unwind has exposed the same pressure points across the sector: SpaceX gravity, ETF outflows, valuation resets, execution risk, launch cadence, defense-contract timing and profit-taking after a crowded rally.
SpaceX’s massive financing push, Rocket Lab’s record-setting rapid-response U.S. Space Force mission, and the SB-AMTI sensing architecture point toward a bigger market theme: the next phase of the space trade may be less about launch spectacle and more about military infrastructure, orbital resilience, sensor networks, and defense procurement.
NASDAQ: SPCX Market Analysis IPO / Space / AI SpaceX (Nasdaq: $SPCX): The Party Lasted Four Days. Then Came the Bill. The largest IPO in market history pushed SpaceX into the center of the global tape: $135 pricing, roughly $75…
SpaceX’s historic public-market debut is more than an IPO. It is the moment Wall Street gets a direct, liquid benchmark for reusable launch, Starlink, Starship, satellite infrastructure, space-enabled communications and the broader commercial space economy.
MDA Space is not a typical speculative space stock. It is a Canadian space and defense technology company with real revenue, a large backlog, positive adjusted EBITDA, and growing exposure to satellite constellations, space robotics, missile warning, and sovereign orbital infrastructure.
SpaceX is not just another listing. A record IPO at a reported $1.75 trillion valuation would turn Elon Musk’s rocket, Starlink and AI platform into the first true public-market benchmark for the modern space economy, with possible indirect read-through effects for $RKLB, $LUNR, $PL and $SATL.
An editorial deep dive tracing Virgin Galactic’s story from the original commercial-space dream to the latest high-volume rally, the Delta-class restart narrative, and the risks that still define one of the market’s most emotional space stocks.
The SpaceX IPO filing has turned into a market-wide valuation event for the space sector. The most important point is not that SpaceX is going public — that had already been widely expected — but that the filing gives investors a new, highly visible reference point for how public markets may price the combined story of reusable launch, Starlink connectivity, satellite infrastructure, defense-linked space services, orbital logistics and long-duration AI/compute ambitions.
Golden Dome, Current Situation: $RKLB, $RTX and $VOYG in the New U.S. Space-Based Missile Defense Rac
Safe Pro Group, Quantum Cyber and Intuitive Machines offer three different ways to read the current convergence of artificial intelligence, drones, defense technology and commercial space. Safe Pro Group is the most numbers-driven update in this group, with record first-quarter revenue, a sharp increase in AI product sales and strong gross margins. Quantum Cyber is the most narrative-driven defense platform story, using the launch of quantum-cyber.ai to frame a broader System-of-Systems strategy across autonomous drones, counter-UAS, EMP-hardened components, autonomous demining and quantum antenna communications. Intuitive Machines is the most mature and institutionally visible company in the group, with record quarterly revenue, positive adjusted EBITDA, a record backlog and full-year guidance that still points to a much larger commercial space business in 2026.
On May 8, 2026, the U.S. Department of War launched the Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters, or PURSUE, and began publishing a first wave of records tied to unidentified anomalous phenomena. That part is not internet folklore. It is an official government release, framed by the administration as a transparency push and explicitly tied to President Donald Trump’s February 19, 2026 directive to identify, review, declassify and release unresolved UAP-related records.
Merlintrader Deep Dive · May 2026 Educational content only · No buy/sell recommendation NASDAQ: $RXT · Enterprise AI Infrastructure Rackspace Technology (Nasdaq: $RXT): May 2026 Deep Dive After Q1 Results and the AMD AI Infrastructure MOU Rackspace is trying to…
Starfighters Space is one of the more unusual public-market stories in the listed space and aerospace universe. The company is not a conventional orbital launch provider, it is not a pure satellite manufacturer, and it is not merely an aviation services company with a space label attached. Its core asset is a scarce commercial fleet of modified F-104 aircraft positioned around sustained Mach 2+ flight, high-altitude testing, launch-support profiles, training, payload development, microgravity-adjacent research and future air-launch optionality. That makes the company difficult to value through a normal revenue-multiple framework, because the investment case is still being built around platform scarcity, mission optionality and the possibility that customers need faster and more flexible access to real flight-test environments.
Amazon’s move on Globalstar is not just another satellite headline. It is a deeper attempt to own spectrum, device-level connectivity, Apple continuity, and a bigger slice of the space economy at the same time. That has immediate implications for Globalstar, material strategic implications for Amazon, and a more complicated read-through for AST SpaceMobile.
Lonestar just expanded its StarVault relationship with Sidus, but the real question is not whether the story sounds exciting. The real question is whether Sidus can convert contracts, hosted payload wins and defense positioning into revenue before burn and dilution overwhelm the setup.
Momentus is still one of the most binary small-cap space stories on the board, but after the last two weeks it is harder to dismiss the company as a pure concept trade. The central reason is not a promotional headline. It is sequence. For a company like MNTS, sequence is everything.
