New York, May 26, 2026, 04:11 EDT
Rocket Lab Corporation is set to trade Tuesday after bouncing Friday. Investors are looking at a fresh U.S. Space Force contract and a smooth Electron launch, but the company’s big stock-sale plan may weigh on current shareholders.
Shares ended Friday at $135.76, gaining 8.22% after losing 6.58% Thursday. Nasdaq trading was not open at the time of publication. U.S. stock markets were shut for Memorial Day on Monday and will resume on Tuesday.
The space trade has shifted. Launch cadence isn’t the only focus now. Attention is on capital, defense deals, and the impact of SpaceX’s planned IPO—the company’s first share sale to the public.
Rocket Lab said May 21 it got a $90 million contract from the U.S. Space Force to design, build, integrate and run two geostationary satellites with Heimdall space-domain-awareness payloads. In geostationary orbit, a satellite stays over one spot on Earth, good for monitoring and communications.
Rocket Lab finished its ninth Electron flight for Synspective a day later, sending up a StriX radar satellite into a 572-kilometre orbit from New Zealand. The synthetic aperture radar tech, or SAR, can image the ground even when it’s cloudy or dark. Rocket Lab has 18 more launches lined up for Synspective.
Rocket Lab’s first-quarter results back the recent rally. Revenue jumped 63.5% to $200.3 million, with backlog at $2.2 billion. The company is looking for second-quarter revenue in the $225 million to $240 million range, but still sees an adjusted EBITDA loss between $20 million and $26 million. EBITDA, or earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, is a rough way to track operating cash flow.
But Rocket Lab’s balance sheet has complications. A recent Securities and Exchange Commission filing said the company could sell as much as $3 billion in common stock using an at-the-market program. That lets Rocket Lab sell shares into the open market at current prices. The filing noted the move could dilute earnings per share, which means existing holders might see their ownership shrink, and this could put pressure on the stock.
SpaceX is getting more attention after Reuters said it filed for an IPO on Nasdaq. Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said the move puts SpaceX at the core of “two of the largest growth opportunities” in the next decades. A debut like this can draw interest to public space stocks like Rocket Lab, though the companies are very different in size. Reuters
Some warn the SpaceX deal could overwhelm the market. Lukas Muehlbauer, research associate at IPOX, told Reuters SpaceX is “so large and extraordinarily valued” that it isn’t a normal test case for IPOs. Brian Jacobsen at Annex Wealth Management said retail investors “can be pulled in by how monumental this may be.” Reuters
AST SpaceMobile and Virgin Galactic both posted gains of over 9% Friday, according to The Wall Street Journal. Firefly Aerospace and Rocket Lab also moved up after trading lower the previous day. Rocket Lab traded with other space stocks, but its main business in small launch, spacecraft systems and defense differs from AST’s focus on communications and Virgin Galactic’s on tourism.
Stocks moved higher Friday, with the S&P 500 logging its eighth weekly gain in a row, according to Reuters. That’s the longest streak since late 2023. Investors looked to possible movement in Middle East talks and a run of solid earnings. A firm Nasdaq tends to lift high-growth, loss-making names.
Rocket Lab’s price now looks like it needs flawless delivery. The company’s future outside small launch rides on Neutron, the bigger reusable rocket that’s still a work in progress, plus new defense and satellite manufacturing deals that have to generate sales and avoid overruns. “But, you know, stuff could go wrong,” University of Florida professor Jay Ritter told Reuters, pointing to the risks for firms with sky-high price-to-sales ratios. Reuters
Tuesday is setting up as a basic test for the bulls: does Friday’s bounce spark a fresh move upward, or do the $3 billion share-sale shadow and questions around SpaceX’s value pull the stock lower?
