Satellite stocks continue to surge amid geopolitical concerns, with Rocket Lab, Planet Labs, and EchoStar hitting records

Satellite services stocks Rocket Lab, Planet Labs, and EchoStar all notched closing records as geopolitical instability continues to push them higher.

Planet Labs President and CFO Ashley Johnson presented at the Needham Growth Conference today, talking up her company’s recent deal with the Swedish Air Force. She called the deal “a signal of the urgency that you’re hearing from nations around the world for the need to have their own intelligence capabilities, their own eyes in the sky to understand what’s going on, to make sure that they have the proper preparedness.”

Satellite stocks have been surging in the face of an uptick in global instability and White House actions and saber-rattling aimed at Venezuela, Iran, and remarkably Denmark, over President Trump’s fixation on annexing Greenland.

Since the ball dropped on New Year’s Eve, their gains have been eye-watering: Rocket Lab is up nearly 30%, Planet Labs is up 34%, and EchoStar has risen 21%.

After all, the low-Earth orbit industry began as a way to easily establish redundancies for communications, intelligence, and missile defense capabilities. Military and government contracting remain important cornerstones of the business.