Retail investors are showing renewed conviction in the space sector even as several major names remain deep in negative territory over the past month.
A Stocktwits poll drawing 1,600 votes found SpaceX (SPCX) and AST SpaceMobile (ASTS) each securing 33% of the vote as the top dip-buying opportunities.
Rocket Lab (RKLB) followed closely with 29% of the vote, while Planet Labs (PL) attracted just 5% of retail interest.
Over the past month, SPCX has fallen 14%, ASTS has dropped 18%, RKLB has declined 25%, and PL has lost 17%.
The broader weakness in space stocks coincided with deteriorating risk appetite, as the Nasdaq Composite fell 1.6% while crude oil surged 9% amid escalating U.S.-Iran tensions and renewed inflation concerns.
China’s advances in reusable launch technology added another layer of competitive concern, with the country’s Long March 10B recently placing a satellite into orbit before its booster was recovered in a net on an offshore platform.
Morgan Stanley called China SpaceX’s most credible long-term challenger, while cautioning that it has yet to prove it can repeatedly launch and refly a recovered booster, and the bank maintained an Overweight rating and a $300 price target on SpaceX.
SpaceX has fallen to a record low after losing more than 4% in each of the past two sessions, now sitting 7% below its first public trade of $150 and moving closer to its $135 IPO price.
Starship Flight 13 is scheduled no earlier than Thursday, with the mission expected to test recent changes and carry 20 Starlink V3 satellites aboard.
A successful Starship flight could revive confidence in SpaceX’s reusability story, while another setback would keep execution risks squarely in focus for investors.
AST SpaceMobile recently secured a New Zealand gateway license supporting its direct-to-smartphone satellite network and is preparing BlueBirds 11, 12, and 13 for an August launch campaign.
AST said its next-generation satellites should deliver nearly twice the peak speeds of its first-generation BlueBirds, with the company targeting 45 satellites by year-end and agreements with nearly 60 mobile operators covering more than 3 billion subscribers.
Rocket Lab ranked only four percentage points behind the poll leaders despite enduring six consecutive losing sessions heading into the survey period.
The company recently completed a full-duration burn of Neutron’s second-stage Archimedes Vacuum engine, describing the test as “a thing of beauty” and calling it “critical preparation for Neutron’s first flight.”
CEO Peter Beck has said the company is “pushing very hard” to launch the reusable Neutron rocket in the fourth quarter of 2026.
Rocket Lab also completed its Victus Haze mission for the U.S. Space Force ahead of key deadlines and agreed to acquire Iridium for approximately $8 billion, with Beck describing the combined business as a “fully integrated self-launching space superpower.”
Planet Labs received only 5% of the retail vote despite reporting record quarterly revenue of $94.2 million, a 42% year-over-year increase, along with defense and intelligence sales climbing more than 65%.
PL’s backlog increased 72% to more than $906 million, and the company launched Pelican-11 last week as a technology demonstrator for its next-generation imaging constellation.
On Stocktwits, retail sentiment was bearish across all four names, with message volume low for SPCX, ASTS, and PL, while RKLB saw normal activity levels.
Despite the current pessimism, longer-term returns tell a different story, with ASTS up 48% over the past year, RKLB gaining 97%, and PL surging 333% over the same period.
