SpaceX Is Down 3.5% Thursday. Why Are Space Stocks Like AST SpaceMobile Under Pressure?

Eric Bleeker

Thu, August 13, 2026 at 7:41 PM GMT+3 4 min read

Quick Read

LUNR's Q2 revenue miss weighed on space stocks, while SPCX digests a 35% weekly run powered by 247% AI revenue growth.
Planet Labs and Redwire held modestly green on earnings strength, signaling today's weakness is sector rotation, not a broad space selloff.
RKLB bucked the group with Q2 revenue jumping 62% year over year and backlog swelling to a record $2.36 billion.
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Space stocks are trading in split fashion Thursday morning, and the tape tells a more nuanced story than the headline suggests. SpaceX (NASDAQ:SPCX) is down 3.5% intraday, AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS) is off 3%, and Intuitive Machines (NASDAQ:LUNR) is down roughly 1.6% after opening deeply negative on earnings. Rocket Lab (NASDAQ:RKLB) is bucking the group, up 1.1%.

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Intuitive Machines Earnings Set the Tone

[stock_chart ticker="LUNR"]

The catalyst driving today's chop is Intuitive Machines' Q2 report, released Thursday morning. Revenue hit a company-record $206.2 million but missed the FactSet consensus of $216.3 million, paired with a wider-than-expected loss. What kept the selloff shallow: $920 million in new awards booked during the quarter and a backlog that ended at $1.8 billion. The stock opened sharply lower and buyers stepped in almost immediately. That intraday round trip matters. It signals investors are treating weakness in this group as an entry point.

Intuitive Machines' lunar delivery work overlaps commercially with SpaceX's launch services and NASA program exposure, so a soft earnings report here tends to bleed into sentiment across the space complex.

SpaceX Digests a Massive Weekly Run

[stock_chart ticker="SPCX"]

SpaceX's pullback looks like a breather after a strong run. Shares are up 35% over the past week, powered by Wednesday's rally on the release of Grok 4.6. The xAI model reportedly scored 61 on an intelligence index, matching OpenAI's GPT-5.6 Sol.

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The bigger picture: AI revenue at SpaceX grew 247% year over year to $2.56 billion last quarter, which is why the stock increasingly trades alongside AI infrastructure names rather than pure-play space peers. Morgan Stanley has argued investors are undervaluing that AI franchise. SpaceX only listed publicly around June 2026 at roughly $135, so volatility around the name is still finding its equilibrium. We covered the setup earlier this week in our short-squeeze analysis and Elon Musk's latest internet-traffic prediction.

It's worth noting as well that significant amounts of inflow are moving into memory today after SanDisk forecast stronger than expected non-GAAP margins of 80% in the 2028 to 2030 period. That flow into memory stocks could be moving out of SpaceX as they're two of the most popular trades amongst retail investors.

ASTS and RKLB Diverge

AST SpaceMobile is still digesting its Q2 report from August 10. Revenue came in at $31.52 million, missing consensus of $34.40 million, with GAAP EPS of -$0.77 hit by a $125.9 million loss tied to the BB7 launch incident. Yet ASTS is still up 9% on the week, so today's move is a giveback.

Rocket Lab is the counterweight. Q2 revenue of $234.07 million beat by 1% and jumped 62.0% year over year, with backlog swelling to a record $2.36 billion. CEO Peter Beck called it "another fantastic quarter". That fundamentals story is why RKLB is green while peers digest.

Peers Follow the Split

Planet Labs and Redwire are both modestly green, reinforcing the read that this is a rotation inside the group. Redwire's Q2 revenue beat consensus by a solid margin and Planet's RPOs climbed sharply year over year, giving buyers fundamental cover.

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