{"id":239926,"date":"2026-06-29T14:25:04","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T19:25:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/06\/rocket-lab-to-acquire-iridium"},"modified":"2026-06-29T14:25:04","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T19:25:04","slug":"rocket-lab-to-acquire-iridium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/06\/rocket-lab-to-acquire-iridium","title":{"rendered":"Rocket Lab to acquire Iridium"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<p><iframe style=\"display: block; margin: 0 auto; width: 100%; aspect-ratio: 4\/3; object-fit: contain;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/63w39z-Emj8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope;\n   picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>WASHINGTON \u2014 Rocket Lab is acquiring satellite telecommunications company Iridium for $8 billion as part of its effort to become an end-to-end space company.<\/p>\n<p>The companies announced an agreement June 29 under which Rocket Lab will acquire Iridium for $54 a share in cash and stock, valuing Iridium at $8 billion. That is a 24% premium over the closing price of Iridium\u2019s shares June 26. The deal is projected to close in mid-2027 pending regulatory and other approvals.<\/p>\n<p>Iridium operates a constellation of 66 satellites, with 14 on-orbit spares, that provides phone and data services using L-band spectrum. That includes aviation tracking services from Aireon, <a href=\"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/iridium-to-take-over-aireon-in-367-million-deal-to-expand-aviation-safety-business\/\">which Iridium acquired in May for $367 million<\/a> by purchasing the 61% stake it did not already own, as well as <a href=\"https:\/\/spacenews.com\/iridium-unveils-chip-to-bring-gps-protection-to-mass-market-devices\/\">a recent push into positioning, navigation and timing, or PNT, services<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WASHINGTON \u2014 Rocket Lab is acquiring satellite telecommunications company Iridium for $8 billion as part of its effort to become an end-to-end space company. The companies announced an agreement June 29 under which Rocket Lab will acquire Iridium for $54 a share in cash and stock, valuing Iridium at $8 billion. That is a 24% [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":396,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1512,2028],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-239926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mobile-phones","category-satellites"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/396"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239926\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}