AST SpaceMobile shares fell 10.5% through 11:25 a.m. ET on Friday, giving back part of the 61% gain the stock had built since an earlier call that the SpaceX IPO could lift space stocks. The move came as investors preparing to buy SpaceX shares may have been selling other names in the sector to raise cash.
That pressure landed on a company that is still early in its buildout. AST SpaceMobile is trying to create a satellite network that can deliver direct-to-cellular broadband to unmodified smartphones, and it has already lined up deals with Alphabet, AT&T, Verizon and Vodafone. But it has launched only six satellites so far, and management says it needs 45 to 60 BlueBird satellites in orbit before it can provide continuous coverage to its early select markets.
The timing matters because the SpaceX listing is arriving when investors are making room for a new and closely watched space stock. The IPO prospectus says SpaceX is losing money, but the stock offering has still helped spark trading in the wider sector, and that is where AST SpaceMobile had been a beneficiary before today’s drop. Shares of AST SpaceMobile are now 34% below their 52-week high, a reminder that the stock’s run has not come with a clean launch path.
Operational setbacks have piled up. In April, BlueBird 7 was deployed into an orbit too low to be operational, and AST SpaceMobile later de-orbited it. The satellite was fully insured, but the episode followed a stretch of launch disruption that also included Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket exploding on the launch pad in Cape Canaveral in May, destroying Blue Origin’s only launch pad. With New Glenn sidelined, AST SpaceMobile must rely on SpaceX and its Falcon 9 for future launches.
The company is targeting mid-June for the launch of BlueBird 8, 9 and 10, after setting a goal at the start of the year of putting up to 45 satellites into orbit. Those plans have since been pushed into next year, and continuous service is now delayed into the first half of 2027. AST SpaceMobile says it has scaled production to six BlueBird satellites a month, but it still aims to have more than 100 satellites in service before it can cover the globe and add new markets. For now, the stock is trading like a company that is still waiting for launch windows, not one that has already reached orbit.
