SATS Clocks Best Day This Year As EchoStar’s SpaceX Stake Takes Center Stage

• EchoStar is widely viewed by investors as one of the most direct public-market ways to gain exposure to SpaceX, or as a proxy for the Elon Musk company.
• EchoStar’s exposure to SpaceX stems from a major spectrum sale announced in September 2025.
• Barron’s estimates that EchoStar has roughly 52 million SpaceX shares.

Shares of EchoStar Corporation (SATS) closed nearly 11% higher on Thursday, clocking its best day this year, as investor enthusiasm built around the imminent public debut of rival firm SpaceX.

The stock was up 5% after hours at the time of writing. 

SpaceX is set to begin trading on Nasdaq on Friday after pricing its initial public offering at $135 per share and raising a record $75 billion through the sale of 555.6 million shares. The deal values the company at approximately $1.77 trillion.

SpaceX-SATS Connection

EchoStar is widely viewed by investors as one of the most direct public-market ways to gain exposure to SpaceX, or as a proxy for the Elon Musk company.

The company’s link stems from a major spectrum transaction announced in September 2025. Under the original agreement, EchoStar agreed to sell some of its spectrum licenses to SpaceX for approximately $17 billion, structured as up to $8.5 billion in cash and up to $8.5 billion in SpaceX Class A common stock. In November 2025, the companies amended the agreement to include additional spectrum, increasing the total consideration to roughly $19.6 billion, with up to approximately $11.1 billion to be paid in SpaceX stock, then priced at $212 a share. Barron’s estimates this gives EchoStar roughly 52 million SpaceX shares.

Meanwhile, EchoStar’s traditional satellite and pay-TV businesses continue to face significant headwinds. In the first quarter of 2026, the company lost around 366,000 net pay-TV subscribers, ending the period with 6.63 million total subscribers. Pay-TV revenue declined 10% year-over-year. Its HughesNet satellite broadband business has also come under pressure from low-Earth orbit competitors such as Starlink, losing 58,000 subscribers during the quarter. Overall revenue fell 5.2% to $3.67 billion, though the company narrowed its net loss to $146.9 million from $202.7 million.

How Did SATS Retail Traders React?

On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around SATS stock jumped from bullish to extremely bullish territory over the past 24 hours, while message volume stayed at high levels.

A Stocktwits user expressed optimism for the stock opening at $150 per share on Friday.

Another user highlighted the “insane hype” in the market pertaining to the upcoming SpaceX IPO.

A third user opined that SATS will either rocket or stay flat on Friday.

SATS stock has gained 14% this year. 

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