Satellite Broadband, MSS & Ground Equipment

TELUS and AST SpaceMobile have successfully completed their first integration test between TELUS' wireless network and AST SpaceMobile's space-based network, a milestone toward delivering broadband data, voice calls and text messages directly between smartphones and satellites. The service is expected to be available to TELUS customers within the next year, letting eligible smartphones connect beyond the reach of traditional cell towers. AST SpaceMobile's constellation features the largest communication arrays ever deployed in Low Earth Orbit. Nazim Benhadid, Executive Vice-President and Chief Technology Officer at TELUS, called the milestone a major step forward in extending cellular coverage to places where service isn't available today, while AST SpaceMobile Chief Commercial Officer Chris Ivory said the test reflects the strength and maturity of the company's technology. The partnership builds on TELUS' ongoing investments in its wireless network, including faster 5G+ and LTE speeds and expanded coverage across Canada.

Gilat Satellite Networks said its Peruvian subsidiary, Gilat Perú, has signed a $28 million agreement with Pronatel, Peru's national telecommunications program, to upgrade broadband connectivity across the Ica region. Construction on the project is expected to be completed by mid-year 2027, after which a seven-year operational phase will follow. The award expands Gilat's footprint in Peru's regional connectivity buildout.

Viasat Inc., through its subsidiary Inmarsat Government, Inc., was awarded the U.S. Space Force's MECS2 contract in September 2026, securing an initial US$42 million task order under a seven-year Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity agreement with a ceiling of up to US$307 million to provide fully managed global SATCOM services for the U.S. Marine Corps. The award deepens Viasat's role in secure, multi-orbit government communications and highlights the importance of its ViaSat-3-enabled Ka-band network and 24x7 managed services capabilities. The company's narrative projects $5.5 billion revenue and $626.3 million earnings by 2029, with forecasts yielding a $103.94 fair value, a 44% upside to its current price. Some of the lowest ranked analysts were far more cautious, assuming only about 3.9 percent annual revenue growth and continued losses. The MECS2 award looks incrementally positive for the investment thesis, reinforcing defense demand and multi-orbit capabilities, but it does not by itself resolve near term pressure from high ViaSat-3 and Inmarsat capex or the risk that broadband subscriber declines keep weighing on revenue quality.

MoffettNathanson analyst Craig Moffett said Tuesday that SpaceX's Starlink is becoming a more credible competitor to terrestrial broadband providers, particularly in rural and lower-density markets, as the service begins deploying higher-capacity V3 satellites. Moffett told CNBC that Starlink poses a much greater competitive challenge to Comcast Corp. and Charter Communications Inc. than to traditional wireless carriers such as AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc., saying the terrestrial broadband business where they deliver ISP service is a very credible product that already is having a significant impact. SpaceX's first Starship orbital flight deployed 26 V3 Starlink satellites, which Moffett said carry substantially more capacity and should improve the service, though he expects it will be after 2030 before most of the Starlink constellation consists of V3 satellites. Even with V3 satellites, he does not expect Starlink to match the speeds offered by terrestrial fiber or cable broadband, leaving pricing and customer segmentation as major competitive factors, with Starlink potentially competing more effectively for value-oriented customers. Moffett compared the challenge with the pressure Comcast and Charter already face from fixed wireless access, noting the cable operators have responded by bundling broadband with wireless services, a strategy he said has proven relatively successful.

weBoost, part of Wilson Connectivity, announced weBoost Sky, which it calls the world's first vehicle signal booster engineered to strengthen satellite direct-to-device connectivity. The patent-pending system mounts an exterior antenna on a vehicle and amplifies a phone's 200 milliwatt uplink to 1 watt, the FCC ceiling, a fivefold increase in transmission power, then rebroadcasts the amplified signal inside the cabin through an interior antenna. In Wilson Connectivity field testing outside St. George, Utah, Sky improved RSRP from -116 dBm to -96 dBm and lifted SNR from 1-6 dB to 11 dB, turning an unreliable T-Satellite connection into a dependable one for messaging, location sharing and supported data applications. The same hardware amplifies T-Mobile Band 25 for T-Satellite D2D connectivity and supported terrestrial cellular signal, draws less than 5W over USB-C and installs without drilling or vehicle modification. weBoost Sky, SKU 471086, goes on sale beginning September 28, 2026 at weBoost.com and through select retailers and dealers at an MSRP of $149.99 USD, backed by a two-year manufacturer's warranty and a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Elon Musk's net worth ended the week at $925 billion, up more than $305 billion since January, as his path to trillionaire status stalled amid fading momentum at Tesla and SpaceX. Tesla will unveil the long-delayed Roadster, with the base model starting at around $200,000 and the Founders Series at $250,000, limited to 1,000 vehicles, while traders on Polymarket expect third-quarter deliveries of between 450k and 475k vehicles after 480k in the second quarter. SpaceX is set for its first orbital launch on Monday, a test that will carry the third version of Starlink to space; Starlink made over $4.29 billion in the second quarter, accounting for 53% of SpaceX revenue, and analysts expect total revenue to jump to $44 billion this year and $108.3 billion next year. Most of Musk's wealth comes from his 48.5% stake in SpaceX and about 20.3% of Tesla, plus large holdings in Neuralink and The Boring Company.

U.S. space and artificial intelligence company SpaceX conducted the 14th launch of its large spacecraft Starship on the 28th at a base in southern Texas, reaching Earth orbit for the first time. This marks a step forward from its repeated test flights toward commercialization. The flight was initially planned to last about 10 hours, but a problem caused some engines to shut down, forcing a change of plans. After roughly 3 hours of flight, the spacecraft splashed down in the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii. At one point there was discussion over whether orbit insertion was still feasible, but the company determined the shut-down engines were not needed for the remainder of the journey and proceeded toward orbit as planned. After reaching orbit, it deployed 26 new satellites for the satellite communications service Starlink, and CEO Elon Musk posted on X that all satellites had been deployed and were operating normally.

TD Cowen initiated coverage of Space Exploration Technologies Corp., known as SpaceX, with a Buy rating, citing a potentially massive opportunity in artificial intelligence computing alongside continued growth in Starlink and launch services. The brokerage said SpaceX's terrestrial AI compute-leasing business could become its largest near-term revenue opportunity, estimating it could generate about $14 billion of revenue in 2026, equal to roughly 35% of SpaceX's total, before rising to $66 billion in 2027 and $133 billion in 2028. TD Cowen expects that business, including services for customers such as xAI and Anthropic, to account for about 60% of SpaceX revenue in 2027, with the analysts led by John Blackledge seeing it drive most of the company's revenue growth through the first quarter of 2027. Longer term, the firm forecasts Starlink, launch services and other space-related operations will become increasingly important as AI compute growth slows, estimating SpaceX could lease 44% to 49% of its AI compute capacity between 2027 and 2031, while Starlink reaches 107 million consumer subscribers by 2031, including about 10 million in the U.S. TD Cowen projects SpaceX revenue rising from about $18.7 billion in 2025 to $40.9 billion in 2026 and $113.2 billion in 2027, with EBITDA climbing from $6.6 billion to $18.9 billion and then $60.8 billion, and its $200 target compares with the report's stated $148.68 share price on Sept. 25, implying roughly 35% upside.

Nvidia announced an additional $150 billion share buyback authorization, bringing its total remaining authorized amount to $235 billion, which the company said it plans to use through the end of fiscal 2028. The buyback, described by panelists as potentially the largest authorization ever announced, helped lift Nvidia shares, which are up about 21% this year. Nvidia also unveiled a new AI security system called the open agent safety platform, developed with several partners including Anthropic but notably not OpenAI, in response to recent hacking incidents. CEO Jensen Huang told CNBC the platform is designed to keep agentic AI systems within minimal rights, and he said OpenAI is welcome to adopt the open-source technology. The announcements came as Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei met President Trump for a private dinner, with no headlines emerging on what was discussed. Separately, SpaceX launched Starship Flight 14, its first flight into low Earth orbit, carrying 26 Starlink V3 high-speed internet satellites; one of the rocket's six engines went out, but the mission still reached low Earth orbit. Meta introduced a new Meta enterprise platform and hired MongoDB CEO CJ Desai to run it, sending MongoDB shares sharply lower in pre-market trading. President Trump is set to roll back Biden-era fuel economy standards, cutting the 2031 fleet target from roughly 50 MPG to 34.5 MPG, and said he is looking very seriously at a diesel export ban.

Sirius XM Holdings has put its SXM-11 satellite fully into service, expanding broadcast coverage across roughly eight million square miles and supporting service to about 210 million equipped vehicles. The milestone arrives as the stock has eased in the near term, with a 7.31% 30 day share price return and a 6.07% 90 day share price return, though the 29.84% year to date share price return and 24.37% 1 year total shareholder return still point to momentum built over the past year. The most followed fair value estimate for the company is $28.08, against a last close of $26.63, leaving a small implied discount and a 5% undervalued reading. The bull case rests on rapid growth in podcast advertising, up nearly 50% year over year, and improvements in audio ad tech such as new measurement and buying tools. The narrative could unwind if Sirius XM Holdings continues to report shrinking subscribers and if rising content and acquisition costs compress already thin audio margins.

The global 5G non-terrestrial network market is projected to grow from USD 11.91 billion in 2026 to USD 45.55 billion by 2031, a compound annual growth rate of 30.8%, according to a new report added to ResearchAndMarkets.com. Growth is driven by demand for satellite connectivity, direct-to-device services, NTN-enabled Internet of Things, and resilient communications in remote, maritime, aviation and disaster-prone areas. Within the market, the geostationary Earth orbit satellite segment is expected to hold the largest share, while the services segment is forecast to grow fastest. Asia Pacific is expected to record the highest regional growth rate, with China, South Korea and India as major revenue contributors. Leading companies profiled include Thales, MediaTek, EchoStar Corporation, Qualcomm Technologies, SpaceX, Gatehouse Satcom, SES, Rohde & Schwarz, SoftBank Group, Keysight Technologies, Sunwave Communications, ZTE, Ericsson, Nokia, Viavi Solutions, Viasat, Telesat, Telit Cinterion, Mavenir, AST SpaceMobile, OQ Technology, Omnispace, Skylo, Sateliot, Myriota and Monogoto.

Sunwave Communications announced on September 23 that the company plans to issue shares to specific investors, raising no more than 992 million yuan. After deducting issuance expenses, the funds will be used for a satellite-terrestrial integrated communications system project, a next-generation communications technology research and development project, and to supplement working capital and repay interest-bearing liabilities.

Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an Overweight rating and a $122 price target on Rocket Lab, implying roughly 89% upside from current levels, sending shares higher Monday. Analyst Andres Sheppard called the stock a good entry point ahead of two potentially transformative catalysts: the first launch of Neutron and the expected closing of Rocket Lab's acquisition of Iridium. Neutron, which Rocket Lab still targets launching later this year, is designed to carry roughly 13,000 kilograms of payload versus about 300 kilograms for Electron, and management expects each Neutron launch to generate roughly $50 million to $55 million, with Sheppard seeing the rocket eventually emerging as an alternative to SpaceX's Falcon 9. Rocket Lab has raised $1.944 billion through an at-the-market share offering, removing a major financing hurdle for the Iridium deal, which is expected to close in mid-2027 subject to regulatory approval and which Sheppard expects to roughly double the combined company's annual revenue. The company completed its 96th Electron mission on September 19, marking its 17th launch of 2026, and has another 15 dedicated missions planned for Synspective through the end of the decade.

SpaceX is targeting Sept. 28 for Starship Flight 14, six days later than its original Sept. 22 target, a mission designed to attempt a full orbit around Earth and deploy operational Starlink V3 satellites. The flight would mark a step beyond previous Starship tests, which did not attempt full orbital operations. Starlink remains the more established part of the business, providing recurring revenue that helps fund SpaceX's capital-intensive ventures, while the company's AI computing segment posted revenues of $2.56 billion in the second quarter of 2026, up 247.5% year over year, with compute revenues of $2.6 billion and adjusted EBITDA of $1.15 billion. Management expects compute capacity to exceed 2 gigawatts by year-end and 10 gigawatts by 2027 end, even as second-quarter 2026 capital expenditures reached approximately $18.4 billion, including about $15.8 billion for AI compute infrastructure, and the company reported a $541 million net loss. SpaceX carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) and a Value Score of F, and the Zacks Consensus Estimate projects a loss of 15 cents per share for 2026 followed by earnings of $1.63 per share in 2027.

Boeing has completed its 13-satellite O3b mPOWER constellation for operator SES after launching the final three satellites, F11, F12 and F13, from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station to join the 10 already in orbit. The constellation is aimed at supporting high-speed global connectivity for customers with growing bandwidth needs, including governments, cruise lines, commercial airlines and mobile users. Ryan Reid, President of Boeing Satellite Systems International, said the constellation demonstrates the company's capacity to deliver through robust execution and customer focus, and noted that pairing the O3b mPOWER payload with Boeing's standardized 702X satellite platform gives a dual-use architecture that can be built and integrated quickly across different orbits. The satellites are yet to complete orbit raising and initialization before entering service in mid-2027, leaving risks of technical delays or anomalies, and any technical shortcomings in the O3b mPOWER architecture could prompt additional scrutiny of Boeing's related defense implementations, including hardened versions being developed for the U.S. Space Force's Evolved Strategic SATCOM systems and Wideband Global SATCOM. By the end of the second quarter, Boeing reported $715 billion in total backlog, including $597 billion for commercial airplanes, $85 billion for Defense, Space & Security and $33 billion for Global Services. Hedge fund ownership of Boeing fell from 99 funds in the first quarter of 2026 to 90 funds in the following quarter, while BlackRock is the largest institutional stakeholder with 61.04 million shares, or 7.72% ownership.

Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas reiterated a Buy rating and $300 price target on SpaceX, implying roughly 99% upside, as investors await Starship's first orbital test on September 22. The 14th Starship flight is expected to send the vehicle into orbit and deploy 26 Starlink V3 satellites, tying the launch directly to one of SpaceX's biggest growth businesses. CEO Elon Musk has said Starlink V3 deployment will begin in September and that the next-generation satellites could eventually deliver more than 100 times the bandwidth of the current constellation. Bernstein analyst Douglas Harned maintained an Outperform rating with a $248 target, implying about 64% upside, and said gaining Starship reusability to enable orbital data centers remains most important for SpaceX's valuation; he expects the Connectivity business to generate more than $100 billion in EBITDA by 2031. William Blair analyst Louis DiPalma called the latest deal SpaceXAI's fourth compute agreement in the past four months exceeding $11 billion in ARR, while Wall Street's average SpaceX price target stands at $232.07, implying about 54% upside.

Viasat, Inc. announced that its ViaSat-3 F2 satellite has entered service across the Americas, completing the ViaSat-3 constellation and significantly expanding the company's network capacity, flexibility and resilience in the region. The satellite is designed to provide more than one terabit per second of throughput capacity over the Americas, with advanced beamforming technology that dynamically allocates capacity to high-demand flight routes, shipping lanes and geographic regions. With ViaSat-3 F1 already in service and F3 entering service across Asia-Pacific in August, completion of the ViaSat-3 constellation has tripled the bandwidth available across Viasat's global fleet, supporting its aviation, maritime, government and broadband customers. Chairman and CEO Mark Dankberg called the milestone a major step for Viasat and its customers, saying the VS3 satellites are the most advanced commercial satellites in the world in terms of adaptive beam forming, user performance and resilience to interference, and that the technology sets new commercial standards for solar power generation and thermal dissipation. Viasat, based in Carlsbad, California, completed its acquisition of Inmarsat in May 2023.

Baron Capital holds roughly $25 billion in SpaceX shares, and founder Ron Baron projects that Starlink alone can grow into a $1 trillion revenue line within a decade. SpaceX, trading under the ticker SPCX, closed at $150.88 on September 16, 2026, up 5.15% on the session but down 6.26% from its post-IPO reference, with a market capitalization near $1.16 trillion. SpaceX's Q2 connectivity revenue reached $4.29 billion, up 66% year over year, with enterprise and government revenue inside that line growing 108%, even as consumer ARPU slipped from $85 to $66. Baron's model rests on expanding the constellation to 100,000 satellites, with each generation deorbited every five years and replaced by hardware ten times more capable, a plan that depends on Starship V3 cutting the cost to orbit by 99% or more. SpaceX spent $18.37 billion on capex in Q2 alone, including $15.83 billion on AI compute, and placed a $25 billion inaugural investment-grade bond issuance to fund the buildout, according to Baron Capital. GAO researchers reviewing space-based data centers in April 2026 flagged that cooling at scale remains unproven because heat disperses poorly in the vacuum of space, and that on-orbit servicing is underdeveloped, undercutting Baron's claim that orbital compute costs just $2 one time. The near-term milestone to watch is the Starship V3 test-flight cadence, since a launch-economics breakthrough is the single variable that decides whether the 100,000-satellite plan is arithmetic or fiction.

Nigerian Communications Satellite Limited, known as NIGCOMSAT, has selected EchoStar's Hughes JUPITER scalable gateway system to support its NIGCOMSAT-2A and 2B satellites. Ground network preparation and deployment are scheduled to begin in 2026, ahead of planned satellite launches in 2028 and 2029. The long-term contract underscores EchoStar's expanding role in providing secure, high-capacity satellite connectivity across Africa and reinforces its position in next-generation, infrastructure-level communications projects. The win adds evidence of international demand for EchoStar's infrastructure, though the company's near-term picture remains focused on execution on new networks against a stressed balance sheet and large upcoming maturities. EchoStar's enlarged US$5,000 million buyback authorization stands out as its most relevant recent announcement, sitting alongside high leverage and negative free cash flow. EchoStar's narrative projects $13.2 billion in revenue and $775.8 million in earnings by 2029, assuming revenue declines of 3.4% per year and an earnings increase of about $6.5 billion from -$5.7 billion today, with a $128.43 fair value estimate implying 39% upside.

SpaceX shares rose 5.1% to $151 in mid-morning trading Wednesday, pushing the stock back above the $150 level it first reached when it began trading June 12 following an IPO priced at $135. The catalyst was fresh policy news: U.S. defense officials confirmed on-orbit space-control weapons and highlighted progress on the Golden Dome interceptor program, tied to multibillion-dollar SpaceX contracts awarded earlier this year, pointing investors toward Starshield, SpaceX's national security satellite business, which already holds more than $6 billion in multi-year Space Force contracts for LEO-based communications and sensing. The Pentagon's FY 2027 budget request carries a $17.9 billion Golden Dome line item covering advanced space-based and terrestrial sensors, command and control, kinetic interceptors, and next-generation non-kinetic programs, and SpaceX is the only operator with a proliferated LEO constellation at production scale. The fundamental backdrop supports the move: the August 4 8-K showed Q2 revenue of $7.81 billion, beating the $6.82 billion consensus by 15%, with EPS of -$0.09 versus the -$0.29 estimate, Starlink subscribers doubling to 12.0 million, connectivity revenue up 66% year over year, and enterprise and government revenue climbing 108% on airline partnerships and Starshield contracts. Traditional missile-defense primes Lockheed Martin, RTX, and Northrop Grumman all sit inside the Golden Dome supply chain for interceptors, sensors, and integration, while pure-play space names like Rocket Lab and AST SpaceMobile tend to move with SpaceX headlines; SpaceX carries a $47.50 billion backlog and $93.52 billion in cash, alongside $18.37 billion in quarterly capex, $15.83 billion of which went into AI compute, with a market cap of roughly $1.16 trillion. Even after Wednesday's rally, SPCX trades 33% below its intraday high of $226 on June 16, and the tell into the close is whether it can hold above $151 and turn the IPO open price into support rather than a ceiling, with the next Starship V3 test flight, any Pentagon follow-on Starshield task orders, and updates on the pending $60 billion Cursor acquisition expected to close in Q3 as near-term catalysts.

SpaceX's AI computing business has flipped to positive adjusted EBITDA, a shift that could help lift the company from its roughly $2 trillion market capitalization toward $3 trillion. The AI segment, the smallest of SpaceX's three businesses in 2025 at about $3.2 billion in revenue, jumped to $3.4 billion in sales by the second quarter of 2026 after SpaceX began renting out spare capacity from its Colossus supercomputer instead of using it solely to train Grok. Starlink remains the only consistently profitable segment at scale, generating $7.5 billion in revenue, or roughly 60% of the company's total, along with $2.8 billion in operating income and $4.7 billion in adjusted EBITDA through June 30, with 12 million subscribers. The space business, which includes Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launches, generated $1.6 billion in revenue from 78 launches in the first six months of the year but is still losing money at the operating line because Starship development is consuming billions in research and development costs. SpaceX has signed AI capacity deals including Anthropic at $1.25 billion a month for Colossus 1, Google Cloud at $920 million a month starting this fall, and Reflection AI at $150 million a month in a contract worth up to $6.3 billion, while CFO Bret Johnsen said the company is on track to reach a $100 billion annual run rate by the end of this year.

A series of agreements between US and Vietnamese companies in sectors including energy, technology, aviation and finance are expected to be announced next week to coincide with the New York visit of Vietnam's top leader, Communist Party General Secretary and State President To Lam. The plans were revealed by officials and documents obtained by Reuters. An internal planning document lists 29 agreements that could be announced at a business conference in New York on the 23rd, which Lam will also attend. The contents of the document are subject to change, and it does not set out the specific details of the planned agreements. US energy companies Murphy Oil and Chevron are expected to announce agreements with Vietnamese state oil and gas company PetroVietnam, while ExxonMobil is expected to announce an agreement with PetroVietnam Refinery and Petrochemical, Vietnam's second-largest refinery. Vietjet, Vietnam's largest private airline, is expected to announce it will lease up to 22 aircraft from four leasing companies, comprising 17 Boeing 737s and five Airbus A321neos. SpaceX is also set to announce an agreement to provide its Starlink satellite internet service to 120 Vietjet aircraft. The planning document also includes an agreement between US-based Meta and Vietnam's Ministry of Culture, and one between US semiconductor giant Qualcomm and Vietnamese telecom company VNPT. Visa, Mastercard and Citibank are also expected to announce agreements with partners in Vietnam's domestic financial and hospitality services sectors.

AT&T announced a deal with Amazon to become the first telecom company in the U.S. to offer broadband satellite services via Amazon Leo, which uses the tech giant's low Earth orbit satellite network. AT&T, which already offers fiber and 5G, says that with satellite services it is now uniquely positioned to provide reliability by bringing together three critical network layers. The move comes as investors have worried that SpaceX's Starlink internet service might chip away at AT&T's market share, and the company has shown it will not be passive in that area. AT&T stock has declined 12% over the past 12 months while the S&P 500 has risen more than 16%, and it trades at less than nine times trailing earnings with a dividend yield of 4.3%, far above the S&P 500 average of around 1.1%.