Satellite Mega-Constellations

SpaceX

S

Active

Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) designs, manufactures, and launches reusable rockets and spacecraft. The company operates Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy, Dragon, Starlink, and the government-focused Starshield line while continuing to develop Starship for high-cadence heavy-lift missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. Starlink crossed 12 million customers across 160+ countries on June 4, 2026 and the constellation now exceeds 10,400 working satellites in orbit. Following the February 2026 xAI merger, SpaceX also operates the Memphis Colossus 1 supercomputer as an AI hyperscaler — disclosing roughly $70B+ of contracted compute revenue across an Anthropic deal ($1.25B/month through May 2029) and a Google deal ($920M/month from October 2026 through June 2029). SpaceX completed the largest IPO in history on June 12, 2026, debuting on Nasdaq under ticker SPCX at its fixed $135-per-share price for a roughly $1.77 trillion valuation and about $75B in proceeds, with Elon Musk retaining ~82% voting control. The first Starship V3 completed a full-duration suborbital test flight (Flight 12) on May 22, 2026.

CASC

S

State-Owned (SASAC)

China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) is the state-owned prime contractor for China's space program and the world's most prolific launch organization by missions flown. Wholly owned by the central government through SASAC, it develops and operates the Long March (Changzheng) rocket family — which surpassed 648 cumulative launches by June 2026 — along with the Shenzhou crewed spacecraft, Tianzhou cargo vehicles, the Tiangong space station, BeiDou navigation and GuoWang broadband satellites, the Chang'e lunar and Tianwen planetary probes, and China's strategic missiles. After a national-record 73 launches in 2025, CASC is targeting over 100 launches in 2026, debuted the partially reusable Long March 12B in June 2026, and is preparing to fly Chang'e 7 to the lunar south pole no earlier than August 2026 while advancing Long March 10 toward a crewed Moon landing before 2030.

Rocket Lab

A

Public (NASDAQ: RKLB)

Rocket Lab is an end-to-end space company spanning launch, hypersonic test launch, spacecraft, payloads, satellite components, and now laser optical communications and space robotics. Electron remains the second most frequently launched U.S. rocket — 88 missions through May 22, 2026 — and Rocket Lab is developing the medium-lift Neutron rocket for constellation, national-security, and exploration missions, with first launch still targeted for Q4 2026. The company posted record Q1 2026 revenue of $200.3M and backlog above $2.2B, completed the $155.3M Mynaric acquisition in April 2026 to add laser comms and a European footprint, and closed the Motiv Space Systems robotics acquisition in May 2026 to bring Mars-proven robotics in-house. On May 27, 2026 Rocket Lab cleared the System Requirements Review for the Space Development Agency's $816M Tracking Layer Tranche 3 missile-defense constellation, taking total SDA awards above $1.3B, and on June 3, 2026 it appointed Agostino Ricupati Chief Accounting Officer.

Blue Origin

A

Active

Blue Origin is a privately held aerospace company founded by Jeff Bezos that develops reusable launch vehicles, rocket engines, lunar landers, in-space mobility systems, and satellite communications infrastructure. Its current programs span the New Shepard suborbital system, the New Glenn heavy-lift rocket, the BE-4 engine family that also powers ULA's Vulcan, the Blue Moon lunar lander family, the Blue Ring spacecraft platform, and the TeraWave network. The FAA closed its NG-3 mishap investigation and lifted the New Glenn grounding on May 22, 2026 — pinning the BlueBird 7 deployment failure on a cryogenic leak that froze a hydraulic line — but six days later, on May 28, a New Glenn exploded during a hotfire at Cape Canaveral's LC-36, destroying the transporter-erector at Blue Origin's only New Glenn pad. CEO Dave Limp said on June 2, 2026 that the rocket will fly again before year-end via an alternative vertical assembly path, with the propellant farm, water tower, a second flight-ready booster, and three upper stages intact; the Blue Moon MK1 'Endurance' cargo lunar lander has completed thermal vacuum testing at NASA Johnson and is being prepared for a launch later in 2026. Reporting in mid-May 2026 also revealed that Blue Origin is weighing its first-ever outside fundraising — Capstone Partners pegs 2026 spend at ~$4.8B against ~$28B of cumulative Bezos investment — as Limp targets a future cadence of about 100 launches a year.

Amazon

A

Public (NASDAQ: AMZN)

Amazon is building Amazon Leo, formerly Project Kuiper, as a low Earth orbit broadband network for customers and communities beyond the reach of existing terrestrial infrastructure. The system combines thousands of satellites with a global ground network and a three-terminal hardware lineup: Leo Nano, Leo Pro, and Leo Ultra. Amazon's enterprise beta went live April 8, 2026 with partners including Verizon, AT&T, Vodafone, JetBlue, and NASA, and CEO Andy Jassy has targeted mid-2026 for broader commercial launch. As of May 2026, 331 production satellites are in orbit, with LE-03 (36 more on an Ariane 64) scheduled June 17. The FCC granted a waiver June 5, 2026 for missing the July 30 50%-deployment milestone (1,618 of 3,236 satellites), imposing a temporary spectrum priority reduction on post-July-30 satellites until March 2028. The planned Globalstar acquisition (expected to close 2027) adds direct-to-device capability, and Delta Air Lines signed for a 500-aircraft Amazon Leo Wi-Fi rollout beginning 2028.

Eutelsat OneWeb

A

Public (EPA/LSE: ETL)

Eutelsat OneWeb is the LEO connectivity business within Eutelsat Group, operating a globally deployed broadband constellation in ~1,200 km orbit. The business combines a 650+ satellite OneWeb network with Eutelsat's GEO fleet to serve government, enterprise, maritime, aviation, and telecom customers. After closing its comprehensive ~EUR 5B equity and debt financing plan in March 2026, Eutelsat reported strong Q3 FY2025-26 results: nine-month LEO revenues reached EUR 172.7M (+61.6% YoY at constant currency), total nine-month revenue was EUR 884.7M, and the backlog held at EUR 3.4B. The first 100 next-generation OneWeb satellites ordered from Airbus are due for delivery in late 2026, with launches set to begin in 2027. Eutelsat is also one of three core satellite operators in the EU's EUR 10.6B IRIS2 sovereign constellation program.

AST SpaceMobile

A

Public (NASDAQ: ASTS)

AST SpaceMobile is building a direct-to-cell satellite network designed to connect standard smartphones to space-based 4G and 5G service without special hardware. After proving the concept with BlueWalker 3 and launching BlueBird 1-6, the company entered 2026 with seven satellites in orbit, more than 50 mobile-network-operator partners covering nearly 3 billion subscribers, and its first meaningful revenue from gateway deliveries, MNO milestones, and government work. BlueBird 7 was lost after an April 2026 New Glenn upper-stage issue, but AST has scheduled BlueBird 8, 9 and 10 to launch together on a SpaceX Falcon 9 on June 17, 2026, and has ramped manufacturing to as many as six fully equipped satellites per month across two Midland, Texas sites — keeping its target of roughly 45 BlueBirds in orbit during 2026 on track, with BlueBird 11-33 already in production.

Space Epoch

B

Private

Space Epoch (箭元科技), legally Beijing Jianyuan Technology and branded 'Sepoch', is a Chinese commercial launch startup developing the Yuanxingzhe-1 ('Hiker-1') — a stainless-steel, methane–liquid oxygen, partially reusable medium-lift rocket whose sea-recovery, low-cost design draws frequent comparisons to a smaller SpaceX Starship. On May 29, 2025 it pulled off China's first sea-based vertical-takeoff/vertical-landing recovery test: a single-engine demonstrator flew a ~125-second suborbital hop to roughly 2.5 km and executed a controlled splashdown off Haiyang, Shandong, with the stainless stage recovered largely intact. Rather than build its own engines, Space Epoch buys methalox powerplants from engine maker Jiuzhou Yunjian. In January 2026 it broke ground on a 5.2 billion yuan (~$740M) sea-recovery rocket plant in Hangzhou sized for up to 25 vehicles a year, aiming to cut launch costs toward 20,000 yuan/kg. Three Yuanxingzhe-1 rockets are in production for a first orbital launch and recovery attempt targeted by the end of 2026. The company has also signed a headline-grabbing Taobao/Alibaba partnership exploring rocket-based parcel delivery and a cooperation toward a new MEO satellite constellation.

Qianfan (千帆, also branded internationally as SPACESAIL) is China's first commercial LEO mega-constellation to enter formal network deployment. Operated by Shanghai Spacesail Technologies, the program launched its first batch in August 2024 and reached 200 satellites in orbit on June 5, 2026 after back-to-back Long March 6A and Long March 8 missions placed 18 satellites each into polar orbit. The company is targeting a 324-satellite initial network for regional broadband coverage by July 2026, with a longer-term roadmap toward a 1,296-satellite Phase 1 and an eventual constellation of more than 15,000 satellites for global coverage by 2030. Standardized flat-panel satellites are now produced for roughly 10 million yuan each — a reported cost reduction of over 96%.

Cosmoleap

C

Private

Cosmoleap (大航跃迁), legally Dahang Yueqian Technology, is a Chinese launch startup founded in March 2024 by Chen Shuguang to build the Yueqian-1 ('Leap-1') — and notably is the first Chinese company to pursue a SpaceX Starship-style 'chopstick' tower-catch recovery instead of landing legs. The roughly 70 m-tall, 4.2 m-diameter, methane–liquid oxygen two-stage rocket is designed to lift about 18,000 kg to LEO when expended or ~12,000 kg with the first stage recovered, on a cluster of nine ~80-ton-class engines reusable up to 20 times. It initially flies the YF-209 engine sourced from CASC's Academy of Aerospace Liquid Propulsion Technology while developing its own 100-ton-class Qingyu-11 methalox engine (targeting ~150 t thrust, deep throttling, and up to 50 reuses). Cosmoleap raised roughly 100 million yuan (~$14M) in November 2024 and a 500 million yuan (~$73M) Series A in April 2026 — about 600 million yuan (~$84M) total — led by Qianhai Ark and Puhua Capital. With its design review passed and a tower-catch verification platform and drop tests underway, the company plans final assembly and integrated testing in the second half of 2026 and a debut orbital flight in 2027.

Telesat

C

Public (NASDAQ: TSAT / TSX: TSAT)

Telesat is a Canadian satellite operator running a declining legacy GEO business while building Telesat Lightspeed, a planned 198-satellite LEO network. Q1 2026 GEO revenue fell 25% YoY to CAD $87M and full-year 2026 GEO guidance is CAD $300M-$320M. The first two Lightspeed production satellites remain on track for December 2026, with full commercial service expected at end of Q1 2028 and cumulative program spend reaching ~CAD $2.7B. Telesat faces an acute debt crisis: US$1.7B of Telesat Canada debt matures in December 2026, lenders holding 90% of that debt filed lawsuits over Telesat's September 2025 transfer of 62% of Lightspeed's equity to an indirect subsidiary, and the 20-F flags 'substantial doubt' about the GEO entity's ability to meet its obligations. The company's growing defense positioning (Mil-Ka capacity on 156 satellites, Arctic comms study with Canada) is a potential long-term offset but does not resolve the immediate financial pressure.