Launch scarcity stops being a talking point and starts showing up in corporate strategy: AST SpaceMobile tells investors it may need to buy or partner its way into launch capacity after New Glenn's May explosion and Vulcan's continued grounding collide with its BlueBird deployment plans. Plus: Rocket Lab's second national-security GEO satellite deal this year, ULA finally names a permanent CEO, the Pentagon funds deorbit-as-a-service designs, and the NRO makes HawkEye 360 an operational data supplier.

• Linked sources: Satellite operators are in panic mode due to a worsening launch crisis — Ars Technica
• Satellite operators emphasize launch deals in a constrained market — SpaceNews
• Viasat Selects Rocket Lab to Build GEO Satellite — Rocket Lab
• United Launch Alliance Appoints Mark Peller as President and CEO — SpaceWatch.GLOBAL
• DIU, SDA Select Winners for Deorbit-as-a-Service Designs — Payload
• NRO to expand use of HawkEye 360's satellite intelligence — SpaceNews
• Launch market economics debate — @MinuteMoola on X

Space Stakes is an AI-voiced podcast, built and run by a real person. Nothing in this episode is financial advice.

SpaceX has effectively closed its Falcon 9 rideshare book past 2028, and satellite operators from Telesat to Amazon are scrambling for alternatives — the main story asks who inherits the launch business SpaceX built. Plus: an abrupt L3Harris CEO shakeup, real hardware from MDA Space's Globalstar replenishment fleet, and a busy day in direct-to-device satellite connectivity.

• Linked sources: There's a huge launch crunch right now — Ars Technica
• Satellite operators emphasize launch deals in a constrained market — SpaceNews
• Small satellite operators confront a bottleneck — SpaceNews
• L3Harris appoints Sam Mehta CEO — L3Harris Newsroom
• L3Harris 8-K filing — SEC EDGAR
• MDA Space Globalstar satellites reach orbit — MDA Investor Room
• Rocket Lab satellite platforms reach orbit — GlobeNewswire
• AST SpaceMobile secures 800 MHz test authority — SpaceWatch.Global
• Lynk and Omnispace form Elveo Mobile — SpaceNews
• Lynk and Omnispace launch Elveo Mobile — company release
• Blue Origin adding second pad at Cape Canaveral — Space.com

Space Stakes is an AI-voiced podcast, built and run by a real person. Nothing in this episode is financial advice.

The Space Force pays five companies — Amazon Leo, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Rocket Lab, and York Space — sixty million dollars to prove they can plug into the $2.29 billion SpaceX-built Space Data Network, raising the question of whether that's real competition or just a hedge. Also today: Ukraine strikes Russia's only Soyuz rocket factory, SpaceX sets a launch-turnaround record, NASA eyes a Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter successor, and the Pentagon taps three companies to design satellite deorbit services.

• Linked sources: Space Force invests in resilient multi-vendor architecture — Space Systems Command Newsroom
• Space Force taps 5 companies for Space Data Network connectivity demos — DefenseScoop
• Rocket Lab awarded $397 million contract — Rocket Lab Investor Relations
• Ukrainian Missiles Strike Russian Soyuz Rocket Factory — SpacePolicyOnline.com
• SpaceX launches 2 Falcon 9 rockets 38 minutes apart — Space.com
• Lunar orbiter among upcoming NASA CLPS task orders — SpaceNews
• Firefly Aerospace awarded contract to design Elytra deorbit system — Firefly Aerospace
• Pentagon contracts deorbiting services for old satellites — Air & Space Forces Magazine

Space Stakes is an AI-voiced podcast, built and run by a real person. Nothing in this episode is financial advice.