SpaceX's low-band spectrum grab sank AST SpaceMobile 10.5% to a 52-week low, while Viasat jumped 6.8% on a Raymond James upgrade and the completed ViaSat-3 constellation.

Viasat (VSAT) led the space basket on Friday, up 6.8% to $72.01, on the ground-segment-and-direct-to-device chokepoint. Raymond James reiterated an Outperform rating with a $107 target, pointing to the now-complete ViaSat-3 constellation — the F2 satellite has entered service across the Americas — and the prospect of EBITDA growth into 2027, plus a possible strategic review (including a spin-off) of the Defense and Advanced Technologies business once the constellation deployments are done. A fiscal-Q1 EPS beat ($0.17 vs. $0.05 consensus) and the binding Space42 direct-to-device joint venture ("Equatys") sit behind the re-rating. Viasat owns the ground-and-gateway rung plus the spectrum to go direct-to-device — the same rung that defined the day's downside.

The laggard was AST SpaceMobile (ASTS), down 10.5% to $50.97, a fresh 52-week low on roughly 54m shares. The trigger was competitive and structural: SpaceX agreed to acquire a nationwide low-band (up to ~14 MHz in the 800 MHz band) spectrum portfolio from privately held Grain Management — airwaves AST had itself been pursuing. By locking up that low-band capacity, SpaceX narrows AST's path to the direct-to-device spectrum its cellular-from-space model depends on, and reframes SpaceX as a direct competitor on the ground-segment rung, not just a broadband rival. An upcoming FCC agenda flagging possible spectrum auctions added to the overhang.

The rest of the tape leaned red outside the winners. The earth-observation-and-space-data rung was soft: SiTime (SITM), the rad-hard timing-silicon name, −5.1% to $612.37; Gilat (GILT) −4.1% to $8.94 on ground segment; Intuitive Machines (LUNR) −3.7% to $13.19 on in-space infrastructure; Redwire −1.8% to $9.58; BlackSky −1.1% to $20.92; and Planet Labs −0.1% to $17.18. Launch held roughly flat — Rocket Lab −0.3% to $68.21, Northrop −0.8% to $480.72. The gainers beyond Viasat clustered in propulsion and ground hardware: Aerojet-adjacent ASRHF +4.4% to $7.515, MDA Space +3.0% to $28.15, Telesat +2.9% to $45.96, Karman +2.8% to $32.59, and SpaceX's tracking line (SPCX) +1.2% to $162.57.

The near-term calendar is launch- and lockup-driven. Satellogic targets its first AI-first constellation satellite launch around Oct 31. SpaceX's 180-day post-IPO lockup fully expires Dec 9 — a supply event for SPCX holders — and SDA Tranche 3 Tracking Layer production milestones land near Dec 1, the next demand wave for the laser-comms rung. Rocket Lab's Neutron reusable medium-lift maiden launch is still inside its Q4 2026 window, and the L3Harris/AE Industrial "Rocketdyne" majority sale is expected to close by year-end. For AST specifically, the FCC's spectrum-auction agenda is now the catalyst to watch.