Shares of AST SpaceMobile (ASTS) fell for a fourth consecutive session on Monday, marking the stock’s longest losing streak of 2026 as SpaceX’s blockbuster IPO approached.
ASTS stock dropped nearly 2%, touching its lowest levels in nearly three weeks during a difficult stretch for the broader space sector.
The losing streak followed a sharp selloff on Friday, when space-related stocks including Rocket Lab (RKLB), Intuitive Machines (LUNR), and Redwire (RDW) dropped between 8% and nearly 14%.
Investors have been weighing whether SpaceX’s anticipated Nasdaq debut could divert capital away from smaller publicly traded space companies competing for the same investor dollars.
SpaceX plans to price its IPO at $135 per share, implying a valuation of $1.77 trillion and potentially making it one of the largest public companies in the United States.
The competitive dynamic is especially complex for AST SpaceMobile, which relies on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket to place its BlueBird satellites into orbit while SpaceX simultaneously expands its own Starlink direct-to-cell capabilities.
Despite the selling pressure, ASTS shares rebounded sharply, climbing 7% in pre-market trading on Tuesday after the company confirmed plans to launch its BlueBird 8, 9, and 10 satellites aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on June 17.
The upcoming launch comes nearly two months after BlueBird 7 failed to reach orbit during Blue Origin’s New Glenn Mission-3 launch, making this a critical milestone for the company’s constellation buildout.
The new satellites are designed to support space-based cellular broadband services, delivering voice, data, and video to standard, unmodified smartphones without requiring any hardware changes.
Adding to investor scrutiny, CTO Huiwen Yao sold 40,000 units of stock on Friday for $3.85 million under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan, a move that drew attention during an already turbulent week.
On the regulatory front, AST SpaceMobile secured FCC “Supplemental Coverage from Space” authorization in the United States, clearing a key hurdle for its ambition to turn satellites into cell towers in the sky.
The company has also demonstrated peak in-orbit speeds of 98.9 Mbps, a technical benchmark that supporters say underscores its competitive positioning in the direct-to-device satellite market.
Roth Capital maintained a bullish stance, stating: “On direct-to-device, Roth believes AST SpaceMobile has a better mousetrap, a roughly two-year head start, and a powerful mobile network operator partner channel relative to Starlink.”
Barclays took the opposite view, cutting its price target on ASTS to $60 from $65 and keeping an Underweight rating after updating forecasts for launch delays and recent operating results, saying the firm sees limited upside versus risk.
