Viasat Stock Hits Over 2-Month High On $4.8B NASA Near-Space Contract: Retail Sentiment Skyrockets

Shares of Viasat Inc. (VSAT) skyrocketed to gain over 25% in morning trade on Tuesday to intraday highs last seen in early November after the company was selected for a $4.82 billion contract from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

The NASA contract involves providing support to the agency’s direct-to-earth (DTE) capabilities through Near Space Network (NSN) services.

This is a part of a five-year indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract with an option to extend five years for a total cumulative value of $4.82 billion. Viasat added that it is one of the four companies chosen to receive task orders initially.

NASA’s NSN aims to offer communications services to low Earth orbit (LEO) missions, allowing them to connect to on-ground networks. 

Viasat says that its real-time Earth (RTE) network is capable of multi-gigabit per second downlinks, with a footprint across six continents.

“Viasat is thrilled to be selected by NASA to support NSN Services for critical mission needs,” said Kent Leka, Vice President and General Manager of Antenna Systems at Viasat.

Reacting to the news, retail sentiment on Stocktwits soared sky-high to enter the ‘extremely bullish’ (80/100) territory from ‘neutral’ (46/100) a day ago.

Users are largely bullish on the Viasat stock’s prospects.

Despite ripping over 25% in morning trade on Tuesday, Viasat’s stock price is still down more than 26% over the past six months and over 55% lower over the past year.

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