By Adam Clark

Iridium Communications was rising early Thursday while AST SpaceMobile was dropping. A flurry of space-related news is reshaping the market for the satellite companies.

Space-related stocks are especially in focus due to NASA's Artemis II II mission, which launched Wednesday, sending four astronauts on a 10-day journey around the moon. The Artemis II mission also includes the deployment of four miniature satellites for research purposes.

On Wednesday, Elon Musk's rocket company SpaceX filed confidential initial public offering documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission, according to The Wall Street Journal. SpaceX didn't respond to a request for comment from Barron's.

Meanwhile, Amazon.com is reportedly in talks to acquire satellite company Globalstar as it looks to build out its own space-based communications network.

Iridium was up 3.5% in premarket trading, having risen 64% in the past three months. While recent excitement looks to be linked to the potential uses of the satellite company's technology for military purposes, investors might also be reconsidering the value of its existing spectrum and fleet in light of the reported Globalstar approach.

"While Iridium's spectrum position is small relative to others...L-Band and S-Band spectrum remain scarce, and we think there would be interest among the large players investing in DTD [direct-to-device] services," wrote Raymond James analyst Brent Penter in a recent research note.

Meanwhile, AST SpaceMobile was falling 4.8%. The move might have been partly due to momentum-driven trading after President Donald Trump rattled markets with a speech on the Iran conflict. However, AST SpaceMobile also looks to be facing fierce competition from both SpaceX's Starlink Mobile and Amazon's Project Leo in the market of satellite-to-cell communications.

AST SpaceMobile is racing to get enough satellites into space to deliver 5G-quality voice, data, and video coverage to cellphones anywhere in the world. But SpaceX is promising a similar service by the end of next year, while Amazon is also eyeing the market -- a move which could be accelerated by acquiring Globalstar, which already has a satellite-to-cellphone services deal with Apple.

Among other satellite stocks, Viasat was down 1.6% in premarket trading, while EchoStar was down 2.8%.

Write to Adam Clark at adam.clark@barrons.com

This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 02, 2026 07:39 ET (11:39 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.