OUTERSPACE TODAYNEWS
← All editionsTuesday, August 25, 2026 / Issue 062
[ OST Daily ]

Rocket Lab Sets the Iridium Exchange Collar and a September 24 Vote, Trump Discloses a June SpaceX Buy, Nvidia and Cisco Join Starcloud's $250M

Outerspace Today5 min read / 2026-08-25
OST Daily August 25, 2026 — Rocket Lab's amended Form S-4 fixed the Iridium exchange ratio between 0.2400 and 0.4000 Rocket Lab shares on top of $27.00 in cash and set a September 24 stockholder vote, a financial disclosure showed President Trump bought as much as $50,000 of SpaceX shares on June 23, and Starcloud closed a $250 million Series A extension at a $2.3 billion valuation with Nvidia and Cisco joining.
The daily pictureOST editorial illustration · 2026-08-25
[ 01 ]

The briefing

Rocket Lab filed an amended Form S-4 on Monday that pins down the economics of its Iridium acquisition: $27.00 in cash per share plus an exchange ratio of 0.4000 Rocket Lab shares if its volume-weighted average price sits at or below $67.50, 0.2400 at or above $112.50, and $27.00 divided by the price in between. Iridium's stockholders vote on September 24. Separately, a White House financial disclosure shows President Trump bought as much as $50,000 of SpaceX shares on June 23, when the stock traded in the mid-$150 range; SpaceX closed Monday back at its $135 IPO price.

Starcloud extended its March Series A by another $250 million at a $2.3 billion valuation, with Manhattan West leading and Nvidia and Cisco participating, taking total funding to $450 million. SpaceX flew the 100th Falcon 9 mission of 2026 from Cape Canaveral on booster B1067's record 37th flight, adding 29 Starlink satellites and likely closing out East Coast Starlink flights for now as workforce shifts to Starship. Spire Global secured an approximately €4 million one-year renewal from EUMETSAT for radio-occultation weather data through August 2027.

[ 02 / 6 items ]

The headlines

01

Trump discloses June SpaceX share purchase now sitting near IPO price

SpaceX

A White House financial disclosure shows President Trump bought as much as $50,000 of SpaceX shares on June 23, about two weeks after the company's IPO, when the stock traded in the mid-$150 range. SpaceX closed Monday at its $135 IPO price, meaning the position is likely underwater. The White House said Trump's portfolio is managed by third-party institutions replicating indexes such as the Schwab 1000.

02

Starcloud closes $250M Series A extension at $2.3B as Nvidia and Cisco join

Starcloud raised a $250 million extension to its March $170 million Series A at a $2.3 billion valuation, led by Manhattan West with Nvidia, Cisco, Benchmark, EQT and others participating. CEO Phillip Johnston said Nvidia's technical diligence was driven by data from the Starcloud-1 flight and that the round funds Washington-state manufacturing expansion and the Starcloud-3 spacecraft. He also framed the raise as a hedge against SpaceX freezing new Transporter and Bandwagon bookings past late 2028.

03

SpaceX flies 100th Falcon 9 of 2026 on B1067's record 37th flight

SpaceX

SpaceX launched Starlink 10-49 from Cape Canaveral SLC-40 at 5:33 a.m. EDT on August 25, deploying 29 Starlink satellites and marking the 100th Falcon 9 flight of 2026, a separate milestone from the 100th SpaceX orbital mission of the year flown from Vandenberg on Saturday. First-stage booster B1067 flew its record-setting 37th time and landed on A Shortfall of Gravitas, the 165th recovery on that droneship. No further Cape Canaveral Starlink flights are on the near-term schedule as SpaceX shifts Florida workforce toward Starship.

04

EUMETSAT renews and expands Spire radio-occultation contract for about €4M

SPIR

Spire Global was awarded an approximately €4 million one-year renewal and expansion by EUMETSAT for radio-occultation weather data, extending delivery through August 2027 and building on a previously announced €3 million contract. Spire will continue supplying pressure, humidity and temperature profiles that EUMETSAT distributes to European national weather services and World Meteorological Organization members for operational forecast models.

05

Aerospace Corp. reports DiskSats performing on-orbit after December Electron launch

RKLB

The Aerospace Corporation said four 17-kilogram, one-meter diameter DiskSats deployed to a 550-kilometer orbit from a December Rocket Lab Electron launch out of Wallops are performing as expected. The satellites are descending about two kilometers per month from atmospheric drag while engineers commission Enpulsion Nano Field Emission Electric Propulsion systems that will lower them into very low Earth orbit below 300 kilometers. Chief engineer Darren Rowen called the pancake-shaped form factor the biggest advance in containerized satellites since cubesats.

06

OrbitAID plans full satellite life-extension demo in low Earth orbit (LEO) in Q1 2027

Indian startup OrbitAID Aerospace said it plans to launch a two-satellite rendezvous, proximity operations and refueling demonstration in low Earth orbit in the first quarter of 2027. CEO Sakthi Kumar said the mission is designed to prove the complete life-extension sequence, including autonomous approach, docking and propellant transfer, in a single flight, using proprietary docking hardware and control software. OrbitAID said it went from design to launch readiness in 11 months and is already in commercial discussions for a follow-on geostationary orbit (GEO) life-extension mission.

[ 03 / +24 / -21 ]

Market pulse

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

Gainers+24
Decliners-21
Big mover SATL-4.2%
AssetSnapshotMoveTrend
ATROAstronics$77.51+4.0%
GLWCorning$152.78+3.8%
RBCRBC Bearings$513.95+3.6%
SATLSatellogic$5.13-4.2%
ASTSAST SpaceMobile$59.88-3.4%
LUNRIntuitive Machines$16.11-3.0%
[ 04 / 5 tracked ]

Launch watch

Schedule and countdowns as recorded in the 2026-08-25 edition.

Ariane 62 | MTG-I2

Arianespace · Ariane 62 · Ariane Launch Area 4 · Guiana Space Centre, French Guiana · GTO

Angara 1.2 | Kosmos ()

Russian Space Forces · Angara 1.2 · 35/1 · Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russian Federation

Pallas-1 | Demo Flight

Galactic Energy · Pallas-1 · Pallas-1 Launch Pad · Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center

[ 05 / 8 in window ]

Filings

[ End of Issue 062 ]

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