NEW YORK, April 6, 2026, 08:15 EDT
- Planet Labs surged 16.9% in premarket trading Monday. Shares of Rocket Lab, Viasat, BlackSky, and Redwire were also on the move, posting gains ahead of the open.
- Rocket Lab and Planet Labs are drawing new attention in stock chatter, while BlackSky, Redwire, and Viasat are also surfacing as public names for those tracking the latest surge of investor appetite for space.
- With SpaceX still private, reports of IPO discussions and investor meetings are fueling a search for public-market stand-ins.
Space stocks with U.S. listings jumped in premarket action Monday. Planet Labs surged 16.9%, topping the group, with Rocket Lab up 3.3%. Viasat gained 18.7%, BlackSky advanced 11.5% and Redwire tacked on 7.2%, as traders continued snapping up public alternatives to SpaceX before its anticipated IPO later this year.
This one lands differently: SpaceX has slipped confidential IPO papers to regulators and, according to sources, is in discussions with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund for a potential $5 billion anchor investment. That’s shifted the IPO chatter from rumor to reality. Anchor investors, typically heavyweight institutions, come in early to help shore up demand ahead of a listing.
Stock chatter in the past 24 hours has zeroed in on that theme. On Monday, TipRanks cast Rocket Lab and Planet Labs as standout space plays looking ahead to 2026. Insider Monkey’s Sunday list put Rocket Lab and Redwire among the names with the most upside. MarketBeat, for its part, recently flagged BlackSky, Viasat, and Redwire as satellite stocks to keep an eye on before a potential SpaceX IPO.
Rocket Lab is staking its claim as the go-to name in launch and infrastructure. The company disclosed on March 30 that it secured German regulatory clearance for its takeover of Mynaric, a laser-communications specialist. Just two days earlier, on March 28, it notched its first dedicated mission for the European Space Agency. “Orbital accuracy is critical,” CEO Peter Beck said, underlining Rocket Lab’s focus as it targets new constellation rollouts—a key part of its value proposition for both commercial and government clients. Rocket Lab Corporation
Planet Labs has a different pitch. The Earth-imagery player reported record fiscal 2026 revenue of $307.7 million last month, plus $52.9 million in free cash flow—what’s left after capital investments. Backlog landed at roughly $900 million, representing work under contract but not yet counted as revenue. CEO Will Marshall described the year as “transformational,” highlighting a bigger push into AI-powered offerings. Nasdaq
The business has shifted closer to the heart of geopolitical activity. On Saturday, Reuters reported that Planet will indefinitely stop providing images of Iran and the broader conflict region, following a request from the U.S. government. The move underscores just how entwined commercial satellite imagery has become with defense and intelligence efforts.
Smaller players are getting noticed, too. On March 31, BlackSky landed a multi-year $99 million U.S. government contract for next-generation Earth-observation and space-domain-awareness systems. Redwire followed on April 2, announcing it was tapped to build a quantum-secure satellite for the European Space Agency. BlackSky CEO Brian O’Toole called the U.S. contract a “validation” of its push into next-generation architectures. For Redwire, executive Marc Dielissen described quantum-secure communications as “critical” for European autonomy. BlackSky
Viasat isn’t in rockets or Earth observation, but satellite network operations have pulled it into the rally. Shares jumped 18.7% premarket Monday. Analysts now pitch the stock as another play on surging satellite bandwidth needs and increased government contracts.
Analysts see a familiar pattern here. “It isn’t unusual for the entire sector to rally” around a standout IPO, Peter Andersen of Andersen Capital Management told Reuters last week. Kat Liu, IPOX’s vice president, thinks a strong SpaceX debut could “act as a catalyst” and draw out other major offerings. For Futurum Equities’ Shay Boloor, Starlink is the piece of SpaceX that makes lofty valuations “defensible.” Reuters
Still, there are pitfalls to the spillover effect. Brian Jacobsen at Annex Wealth Management flagged that SpaceX may end up drawing so much focus it actually sidelines rivals, rather than buoying them. “Public market capacity” is about to get a real stress test, Samuel Kerr of Mergermarket said. Company specifics could complicate things, too: Rocket Lab is pouring cash into its Neutron project, while Planet faces the challenge of scaling its analytics offerings without hiccups. Reuters
For the moment, scarcity is driving the story. With SpaceX still private, publicly traded firms with exposure to rockets, satellites, imagery, and secure communications are positioned to soak up extra investor interest.
