Rocket Lab shares rose Monday after two updates highlighted its expanding spacecraft business. Viasat selected Rocket Lab to provide a geosynchronous Earth orbit version of its Lightning satellite bus for the U.S. Space Force’s Protected Tactical SATCOM-Global program, under which Viasat holds the prime contract awarded on May 22 and will supply the dual-band X/Ka-band payload. Separately, Rocket Lab said the first eight of 17 customized Lightning satellites it is building for MDA Space under a $143 million contract reached orbit after an Aug. 15 launch from Cape Canaveral and are in contact, generating power and performing nominally as commissioning begins.