Space stocks are suffering a punishing July selloff, with Rocket Lab (RKLB), AST SpaceMobile (ASTS), and the SPCX ETF each tumbling more than 30% this month.
RKLB has dropped approximately 34% in July, putting it on pace for its worst monthly performance since November 2025, a sharp reversal from a historic two-year run.
ASTS has declined 38% over the same period, marking its weakest month since January 2024, while SPCX has shed roughly 35% over the past month.
Goldman Sachs noted that its basket of U.S. space and satellite stocks is about five times as volatile as the S&P 500, and twice as volatile as a comparable basket of artificial intelligence stocks.
Despite the brutal July pullback, Goldman’s space basket remained up approximately 13% for the year through July 14, outpacing the S&P 500’s 9.8% gain over the same stretch.
The basket had surged more than 360% over the previous two years, reflecting extraordinary investor enthusiasm for launch, satellite, and orbital-connectivity companies.
SpaceX was added to Goldman’s basket on July 14 following its public-market debut, which helped fuel another burst of enthusiasm across the broader sector before the recent slide.
Louis Miller, Goldman’s global head of Equity Custom Basket, said the sector has matured considerably from its earlier days as a purely speculative trade.
“Prior to 2025, this theme was considered more speculative and traded more in line with nascent disruptive-tech-related stocks,” Miller said, noting a meaningful shift in how investors approach the space category.
Miller said the group has since benefited from growing interest in “rocket launches, satellites, global communications, and the potential for future markets that are then enabled by them.”
He cautioned, however, that “investor enthusiasm will likely move ahead of fundamentals at times,” making the path “uneven” despite a compelling long-term opportunity.
Goldman argued that investors focused solely on launch providers may be overlooking a significant share of the total opportunity, pointing to communications infrastructure, semiconductors, electronics, software, advanced materials, and manufacturing as key growth areas.
Miller drew a direct parallel to how the AI trade expanded from model developers to chips, power infrastructure, and data centers as the theme matured.
“The strongest long-term opportunity could come from identifying the picks-and-shovels providers that enable commercialization,” Miller said, urging a broader view of the sector’s investment landscape.
Goldman noted that demand for space-themed exposure has been broad-based, spanning retail investors, private wealth management clients, and institutional investors, with most conversations reflecting long-term investment horizons.
The firm said some companies in its space basket could reach profitability next year, while analyst estimates suggest the broader group may turn profitable by 2027, driven by falling launch costs and rising orbital broadband demand.
Retail traders, however, appear reluctant to buy the dip, with a Stocktwits poll of 10,400 votes showing space attracting just 27% of users looking to add exposure to beaten-down sectors, trailing memory at 44% and neoclouds at 29%.
Sentiment on Stocktwits was mixed, with ASTS rated “neutral” amid “high” message volume, RKLB rated “bullish” with “high” activity, and SPCX remaining “bearish” amid “low” message volume.
Over the past year, ASTS has gained 5% while RKLB has climbed 41%, underscoring the longer-term gains that remain intact even as the short-term selloff rattles investor confidence.
