Starship Flight 13 Set to Fly First V3 Starlinks as SpaceX Slips Below Its $135 IPO Price, Space Development Agency (SDA) Restarts Transport Layer With 21 York Satellites

[ 01 ]

The briefing

AST SpaceMobile launched a $1 billion convertible senior notes offering due 2034, disclosing about $2.72 billion of cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash as of June 30 and a launch campaign targeting roughly 45 BlueBird satellites in early 2027. The company also confirmed advanced discussions with Rakuten around Japan's J-LEO subsidy program for low Earth orbit (LEO) infrastructure, worth up to 148 billion yen or about $1 billion, to support a Japan-operated LEO constellation. The stock traded down 17% on the day as investors absorbed the dilution risk alongside the strengthened liquidity and funding pipeline.

SpaceX set a 5:45 p.m. CDT window Thursday for Starship Flight 13 from Starbase, the second V3 flight and the first to deploy operational Starlink V3 satellites. Twenty V3 spacecraft will ride a suborbital trajectory, extend arrays and antennas and attempt to link into the wider Starlink fleet via laser before reentry roughly 20 minutes after deployment. Booster 20 carries revised startup sequencing, alarm thresholds and relight logic after the May Flight 12 failure destroyed Booster 19 during boostback. SpaceX shares dipped below the $135 IPO price for the first time this week ahead of the test.

The Space Development Agency restarted its Tranche 1 Transport Layer campaign with 21 York-built satellites launching on a Falcon 9 from Vandenberg, ending a pause imposed after software and thermal problems on the first 42 birds. Director GP Sandhoo said seven more Tranche 1 launches remain, three Transport Layer flights from Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin plus four Tracking Layer missions from L3Harris and Northrop. Separately, Slingshot Aerospace won a $69.2 million Space Force SBIR Phase 3 for its TALOS AI training environment, and Germany confirmed OHB's Sparrow milsatcom is on track for a 2027 SpaceX launch.

[ 02 / 6 items ]

The headlines

SpaceX sets Starship Flight 13 window for first operational Starlink V3 deployment

SpaceX

SpaceX opened a 90-minute Starship Flight 13 window at 5:45 p.m. CDT Thursday from Pad 2 at Starbase, flying Booster 20 and Ship 40 on a suborbital profile that will deploy 20 operational Starlink V3 satellites for the first time. The satellites will extend arrays and antennas and attempt laser links to the wider constellation before reentering roughly 20 minutes after release. Super Heavy carries hardware modifications to engine startup, alarms and relight logic to address the Flight 12 booster loss.

SDA resumes Tranche 1 Transport Layer with 21 York satellites on Falcon 9

SpaceX LMT

The Space Development Agency scheduled a 1:32 p.m. PDT launch Thursday of 21 York Space Systems Tranche 1 Transport Layer satellites on a Falcon 9 from Vandenberg's SLC-4E, restarting a campaign paused after software and thermal issues emerged on the first 42 satellites from York and Lockheed Martin. Director GP Sandhoo said seven more Tranche 1 launches remain, delivering 158 satellites in total across three additional Transport Layer flights from Northrop and Lockheed and four Tracking Layer missions from L3Harris and Northrop.

SpaceX stock drops below $135 IPO price ahead of Starship 13

SpaceX

SpaceX shares fell for a fourth straight session Wednesday, briefly trading below the $135 IPO price for the first time before closing at $135.27, roughly a month after the $86 billion offering and days after Nasdaq-100 inclusion. The stock had spiked above $200 shortly after the June 12 debut. The pullback landed ahead of Thursday's Starship Flight 13, the first Starship test since the IPO, with SpaceX planning no recovery of either stage.

Eutelsat plans 528-satellite LEO layer on top of 440-satellite Airbus OneWeb order

SpaceX AIR

A July 6 Eutelsat filing with the FCC disclosed plans for a new 528-satellite low Earth orbit constellation now in design, in addition to the 440 second-generation OneWeb satellites already ordered from Airbus Defence and Space and Eutelsat's Iris2 commitment. The new fleet could include optical inter-satellite links and other capabilities missing from the current 640-satellite OneWeb constellation.

Slingshot Aerospace books $69M Space Force AI training contract

Slingshot Aerospace won a $69.2 million Small Business Innovation Research Phase 3 contract from the Space Force for AI training environments under the Operational Test and Training Infrastructure program. The 4.5-year award funds TALOS, a Thinking Agent for Logical Operations and Strategy that acts as an autonomous virtual opponent so operators can rehearse satellite defense scenarios against unscripted adversary behavior.

L3Harris and Shield AI complete autonomous electronic warfare flight test

LHX

L3Harris Technologies and Shield AI completed the first in-flight test of the Distributed Spectrum Collaboration and Operations (DiSCO) battle-management ecosystem paired with Shield AI's Hivemind autonomy software, following a February simulation. On a U.S. Army-supported range, an L3Harris Green Wolf platform carrying the Deceptor electronic warfare payload autonomously detected electromagnetic threats, and Hivemind rerouted follow-on unmanned systems through a safe corridor without human input.

[ 03 / +3 / -40 ]

Market pulse

Archived snapshot from this edition. Prices and moves are not live.

Gainers+3

Decliners-40

Big mover ASTS-17.0%

AST SpaceMobile fell about 17% to $55.01 after launching a $1 billion convertible offering that also disclosed roughly $2.72 billion of cash and a $1 billion Japan subsidy pathway, with the dilution risk overshadowing the balance-sheet update.

Asset	Snapshot	Move
AMEAMETEK	$237.30	+1.6%
TDYTeledyne Technologies	$630.86	+1.1%
PHParker Hannifin	$958.34	+0.6%
ASTSAST SpaceMobile	$55.01	-17.0%
BKSYBlackSky Technology	$21.46	-11.7%
RKLBRocket Lab	$67.35	-11.6%

[ 04 / 6 tracked ]

Launch watch

Schedule and countdowns as recorded in the 2026-07-16 edition.

T-0D 21H

Falcon 9 Block 5 | SDA Tranche 1 Transport Layer E

SpaceX · Falcon 9 Block 5 · SLC-4E · Vandenberg SFB · Polar Orbit

T-0D 23H

Starship | Flight 13

SpaceX · Starship V3 · Orbital Launch Pad 2 · SpaceX Starbase, TX · Suborbital

T-2D 06H

Vikram-I | Demo Flight

Skyroot Aerospace · Vikram-I · Satish Dhawan Space Centre First Launch Pad · Satish Dhawan Space Centre, India · LEO

T-4D 14H

Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 17-39

SpaceX · Falcon 9 Block 5 · SLC-4E · Vandenberg SFB · LEO

T-5D 21H

Falcon 9 Block 5 | MRV-1

SpaceX · Falcon 9 Block 5 · SLC-40 · Cape Canaveral SFS · GTO

T-6D 03H

Gravity-1

Orienspace Technology · Gravity-1 · Yellow Sea (launch location 5) · Haiyang Oriental Spaceport

[ 05 / 4 in window ]

Filings

8-K

AST SpaceMobile, Inc. · 8-K

2026-07-15 · AST SpaceMobile disclosed a proposed $1 billion Rule 144A convertible senior notes offering due 2034 with capped call transactions, approximately $2.72 billion of cash and cash equivalents plus restricted cash as of June 30, a 2027 launch campaign targeting roughly 45 BlueBirds, and advanced talks with Rakuten under Japan's J-LEO program for a subsidy worth up to about $1 billion.

Form 4 x2

Materion Corporation · Form 4 x2

2026-07-16 · Materion Corporation grouped 2 Form 4 ownership updates: Patrick M. Prevost (director) received 81 shares (18,407 shares after); Craig S. Shular (director) received 96 shares (54,920 shares after). These filings are routine insider-ownership disclosures, not operating updates.

Form 4

Intuitive Machines, Inc. · Form 4

2026-07-16 · Intuitive Machines, Inc. filed a Form 4 ownership update: Llc Ghaffarian Enterprises, Llc Gm Enterprises, and Kamal Seyed Ghaffarian (10% owner) each reported 110,976 shares acquired and 332,928 shares disposed at $15.64 (34,677,200 shares after). These filings are routine insider-ownership disclosures, not operating updates.

424B5

HEICO Corporation · 424B5

2026-07-15 · HEICO priced $550 million of 4.950% notes due 2031 and $650 million of 5.400% notes due 2036, generating about $1.19 billion of proceeds before expenses, with delivery expected on or about July 16.

[ End of Issue 034 ]

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