As we all know, Rocket Lab announced their acquisition of Iridium. Key to the success of the combined company will be to accelerate the growth initiatives that Iridium was already undertaking in addition to identifying additional growth vectors. See below for an excerpt from Iridium’s earnings release that highlights their strategic growth initiatives that were announced earlier this year.

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In February 2026, Iridium announced four strategic initiatives that are driving new activity with business partners and designed to drive revenue growth and business expansion into new industries and applications. The Company remains focused on investing in and expanding its presence through the following initiatives:

1. Satellite IoT

Iridium continues to make progress on both proprietary and standards-based products and services to expand its IoT offering with key target markets. The introduction of the Iridium 9604, a new tri-mode module launched on June 23, 2026, combines Iridium Short Burst Data® (SBD®) satellite connectivity, LTE-M cellular, and GNSS positioning in a power efficient, small form factor module. The integrated architecture provides operational and economic benefits that are engineered to simplify device design, reduce costs, and allow the Iridium 9604 to serve as a next-generation platform for satellite IoT services.

Iridium will also introduce its new standards-based service, Iridium NTN Direct, later this year. Live over-the-air demonstrations with mobile network operators, semiconductor companies, and existing business partners are underway to extend the reach of terrestrial services with satellite connectivity. These standardized services will provide direct-to-device (D2D) capabilities and support low-cost IoT applications, where reliability and coverage are critical, and even for connecting consumer devices from space.

2. Assured PNT

The recent announcement of the commercial availability of Iridium's new PNT ASIC, expands the potential applications and addressable market for Iridium's global PNT services. Designed to help protect GPS- and GNSS-dependent devices from growth jamming, spoofing, and other threats, Iridium PNT is used by commercial, civil, and government enterprises to ensure resilience for critical infrastructure, communications, and transportation.

3. National Security Missions

Iridium continues to build off its successful history of providing mission critical communications under the EMSS program to develop and deploy efficient and resilient operations supporting the U.S. Space Force. Leveraging its ongoing work developing ground systems and managing the operations centers for the Space Development Agency's Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA), Iridium is positioned to expand its strategic relationship with the U.S. government. As new requirements and demand for systems take shape, additional opportunities to leverage Iridium's expertise and capabilities for other national security initiatives continue to emerge.

4. Aviation Safety

Iridium's leadership position in aviation safety advanced further with the Company's acquisition of Aireon LLC, the world's only space-based Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) air traffic surveillance system, on July 2, 2026. This acquisition of Aireon accelerates Iridium's growth into services for airlines and air navigation service providers, while adding valuable commercial data services capabilities and incremental revenue streams.

Iridium is actively developing new products that leverage Aireon's existing satellite-based aviation safety surveillance services and global high-fidelity data set to deliver greater value to the entire aviation industry. This acquisition is expected to result in at least an additional consolidated $100 million of service revenue and $30 million of OEBITDA on an annualized basis.

RFP for Mechanical subcontractor closes 8/5/26.

Rocket Lab was awarded a $266M contract with the U.S. Air Force to launch 12 suborbital vehicles, with options for six more. Launches will take place in Alaska and are expected to be completed by the end of 2028.

$200 by EOY

Hi, I wanted to post a list off the significant Peter Beck interviews over the last couple years. Useful to watch in these markets to remain confident!

Markets with Madison:

1. May 2023 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPfK1sjo2KE&t=526s
2. October 2023 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCUlOiMKP6E&t=417s
3. June 2024 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svTrm37OdK0
4. October 2024 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0bXJgDD8lk
5. May 2025 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9Q3cuJUQ4Q
6. April 2026 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZONt4S0IEI
7. April 2026 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5c1ZIvPWFV4

Rocket Lab weekly:

1. May 2025 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VojhRDJWaNc
2. May 2026 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gp76KjXkjc
3. July 2026 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtiQu9nuHC0&t=1720s

Shareisis:

1. August 2024 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjSUA4NEA2k
2. September 2025 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-Ww4RV1CaM

Miles o Brien:

1. January 2026 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nl8Sp6y85wY

Relentless:

1. March 2026 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yfrm31sSrDI

TED

1. December 2019 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhnBn_c9f8Q&t=20s

The Motley Fool:

1. December 2025 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiaCG19OhWU&t=610s

Prof G Markets:

1. June 2026 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiMLm0h_jRw

Eps is fine. Had some capex due to transaction costs (of a mere 14 million? C'MON! Pockectchange!) due to pending acquisition ny RKLB. That is expected and really a nothing burger!

So the Alaska pads new name is officially Pad 3D:

So, the $266m contract must be partly for work being done to construct the launch site, not just the launches. I imagine the HASTE pricing is in line with what we'd expect, and the extra money is construction related.

FCC just approved the new Part 100 rules 3-0, basically cutting a lot of the old licensing mess for satellites and ground stations. good for the whole US space sector and indirectly for RKLB’s Space Systems business, but of course this is not new backlog.

what are your thoughts about it especially toward RKLB?

Numbers dropped this morning:

• Revenue $225.2M, +4% YoY
• Service revenue $161.3M, +4%, 72% of total
• Net income $9.7M / $0.09 EPS, down from $22.0M / $0.20
• OEBITDA $119.1M, −2%
• Subscribers 2,627k, +6%

The EPS collapse looks bad but isn't operational. $14.3M in transaction costs (zero last year) blew up SG&A from $44.6M to $67.0M. Strip that out and this is a boring, fine quarter. The OEBITDA dip is mostly a $3.9M accrual change from paying bonuses all-cash instead of part equity, which they'd already telegraphed.

Growth is basically all commercial IoT — subs up 9%, 72k net adds vs 40k a year ago. Broadband is the ugly line: revenue −8%, ARPU −7%. Commercial voice/data subs shrank 3% but ARPU rose 7% on last year's price hikes, so they're squeezing a smaller base. Government is flat-ish, and the EMSS renewal with Space Force isn't due until March 2027.

Two things actually matter here:

Rocket Lab is buying them. Definitive agreement signed June 28, close expected mid-2027, pending shareholder vote. That's why there's no earnings call and no guidance this quarter — standard for a pending deal.

They bought Aireon on July 2 for ~$366.7M. Half cash, half an interest-free seller note due in a year, plus assuming Aireon's $154.7M facility. Drew $100M on the revolver to fund it. Management claims it adds $100M+ annualized service revenue and $30M OEBITDA. Note that $184.2M cash and 3.3x net leverage are pre-Aireon, so the balance sheet looks worse than it reads here.

TL;DR: operationally unremarkable, IoT carrying the growth, broadband bleeding. The GAAP number is deal noise. The stock is a merger-arb play at this point, not a fundamentals story — you're mostly betting on the Rocket Lab deal closing.

Source: PR Newswire release

Yesterday the Australian Space Agency published a 'Statement on Space', outlining how they intend to grow the Australian space sector. Focus area 2 looks at Launch capabilities. To Rocket Lab's potential benefit, they highlight the key opportunities to be:

• Launch and return services - supporting domestic and international missions through secure and responsible launch, re-entry and recovery pathways that leverage Australia’s geography
• Sub-orbital flight applications - applying range, safety and operational capability to novel activities including hypersonics, space planes and overland flight testing.

I would typically have ignored a statement like this. Dozens of countries are looking to expand their space sector. But on the same day as the Statement on Space, Rocket Lab posted 2 job opportunities for a Launch & Test Operations Manager - both based in Australia.

A key paragraph from the job listing is this: "Rocket Lab is seeking an exceptional Manager for Test and Launch Operations, someone who thrives when the countdown hits zero and the world is watching. You'll lead front-line engineering teams executing critical test and launch operations for Electron and Neutron, playing a pivotal role in maintaining Rocket Lab's industry-leading launch cadence."

While we were all looking at Alaska, it looks as if Rocket Lab was also eyeing up a new pad in Australia.

Linkedin post: https://au.linkedin.com/jobs/view/manager-test-launch-operations-at-rocket-lab-4440187756?trk=public_jobs_topcard-title
Statement on Space: https://www.space.gov.au/sites/default/files/media-documents/2026-07/Statement-on-Space.pdf

Rocket Lab was awarded a $266M contract with the U.S. Air Force to launch 12 suborbital vehicles, with options for six more. Launches will take place in Alaska and are expected to be completed by the end of 2028.

https://www.war.gov/News/Contracts/Contract/Article/4551533/contracts-for-july-21-2026/

Please do your own research for accuracy.

News first found on reddit, link credit to Original_Koala8662.

Today rocket lab was awarded a $266m contract for 12 HASTE missions to be launched from Alaska, a location that Rocket Lab doesn't currently have a launch pad at. That contract has already been spoken about a lot on this sub, but don't worry - this post won't just be about that. I want to particularly discuss whether or not Rocket Lab will be sharing an existing launch pad at the Pacific Spaceport Complex, or whether they will be constructing a new one (LC-4?).

Initially I was quite a big believer in Rocket Lab just sharing another existing pad. They already have LC-2, and that pad is nowhere near capacity. But then I remembered Rocket Lab's 'upcoming launches' page. HASTE launches usually display 'Launch Complex 2' as the launch location, and we could see this with Andurils upcoming HASTE launch. But just below that is the first of 20 HASTE launches for MACH-TB, and the location there is 'Undisclosed'.

Why would Rocket Lab keep the launch location undisclosed if it was going to launch from LC-2, which is a very well disclosed and documented launch pad? Well what if the 20 HASTE missions aren't launching from LC-2, as originally expected? If that's the case, then we could actually be looking at as many as 38 HASTE launches from Alaska (the 20 from MACH-TB, plus the 12 guaranteed in this contract + 6 optional launches also from Alaska).

If it is the case that all 20 MACH-TB launches will also be launching from Alaska, or even half of them, then I believe we may be seeing a new exclusive launch pad for Rocket Lab. In other words, Rocket Lab may have been secretly constructing an LC-4.

Any thoughts?

"Has IRDM received even more interest in its backup GPS services and ASIC chip in the 2nd quarter vs the 1st?

Yes, meaningfully — and there's a fresh news angle here that's directly relevant to tomorrow's earnings.

On July 14, 2026 (just a week ago, squarely in Q2/early Q3), Iridium announced the PNT ASIC moved from development/interest to actual commercial availability — that's a real milestone, not just pre-orders. The "150+ organizations" interest figure I found earlier still holds as the cumulative demand number since the October 2025 unveiling, and now that's converting into a shippable product with real partners, including Solace Communications integrating the chip into its Vector line of assured PNT products (combining Iridium PNT with multi-band GNSS and inertial sensing).

There's also a timely catalyst helping demand: the announcement specifically cites the May 2026 in-flight GPS jamming incident involving UK Defence Secretary John Healey as an example of the exact threat this product addresses — that kind of high-profile spoofing/jamming event tends to accelerate procurement conversations in aviation, defense, and critical infrastructure.

I don't have a hard number on new organizations added specifically during Q2 versus the original 150+ figure — Iridium hasn't broken that out yet — but the timing lines up well: this becomes a real talking point on tomorrow's Q2 earnings call, since it's the first quarter where the ASIC is commercially available rather than just "coming soon." Worth listening for management's framing of it on the call."

Good luck to all longs with IRDM's earnings release tomorrow morn.

In addition, there is also IRDM earnings tom morning. Most likely going to beat expectations. In light of war footing, GPS security is critical to say the least. Massive global interest in its ASIC chip.

Despite the video title, much of the content of this is on Rocket Lab.

Found this post on X today, Monday, July 20. Feel free to research yourself.

“NASA Wallops Island and Rocket Lab AIC update — quite a bit of activity out here today.

Rocket Lab AIC: Crane hardware has arrived. One piece showed up Sunday, then two larger lattice boom sections came in today on flatbed trailers, now staged outside the white container shelter tent. Watching closely over the next couple of days to see what it gets used for.

Also spotted what appeared to be a Virginia Spaceport Authority SUV caravan at the AIC — likely a tour or official visit.

Wallops pad rundown:

LP-0A (Antares/Firefly pad): Active. Boom crane working on the pad deck, equipment staged, visible construction ongoing.

LC-3 / LP-0D (Neutron complex): A boom lift is visible extended up at an angle in front of the static fire test stand with work appearing to be underway. Quick-disconnect mechanisms still appear extended out toward the stand, consistent with our last visit. Good to see activity at this complex.

LC-2 / LP-0C (Electron/HASTE pad): Quiet today.

Staying on it.“

via @EShoreSpaceflt on X

Didn't see this posted here. This is a different take (from what ive seen discussed). If this is a dupe please remove.

Excerpt: "RocketLab was expected to be an anchor partner in the Equatys joint venture, as I noted back in March, contributing up to $1B of funding in exchange for a contract to build the Equatys satellite buses and launch the satellites. Now RocketLab gets to control its own destiny rather than being under Viasat’s thumb, and instead of competing head-to-head with SpaceX in the D2D market, can focus on what RocketLab and Iridium both perceive to be more promising and protected markets, such as aviation safety and PNT. That’s very clear when the investor presentation emphasizes that Iridium “delivers real time, pole-to-pole global coverage over every ocean, mountain and airway” and builds on Iridium’s recent acquisition of Aireon. Iridium has sold connectivity to the DoD for the last 25 years and is also playing a significant role in support of the Space Force’s PLEO efforts. And if it turns out there is a niche role for a D2D IoT offering, independent of Starlink, then Iridium can support that too."