A look at Rocket Lab's HASTE suborbital launch vehicle.
Rocket Lab
Rocket Lab Shares jumped in after-hours trading after the company reported third-quarter results and announced its first customer for its upcoming Neutron vehicle.
The space infrastructure company reported third-quarter revenue rose to $104.8 million, up 55% from $67.6 million in the year-ago period and above Wall Street's expectation of $102 million, according to analysts surveyed by LSEG .
Net loss also widened year-over-year to $51.9 million from $40.6 million, but the loss of 10 cents per share was slightly below analyst expectations for a loss of 11 cents per share.
Rocket Lab forecast fourth-quarter revenue between $125 million and $135 million, which would put the company at about $430 million by the middle of this year.
In addition, the company announced its first launch contract for its Neutron rocket.
A “confidential commercial satellite constellation operator” signed on for two missions in mid-2026, which Rocket Lab said were priced “in line with our goal” for the vehicle. Previously, the company said it was targeting a price tag of about $50 million per neutron launch.
Shares of Rocket Lab rose as much as 25% in after-hours trading, rising from its closing price of $14.66 per share. The stock has risen rapidly over the past three months, nearly tripling in that period.
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Most of Rocket Lab's third-quarter revenue growth came from its Space Systems division, which builds spacecraft and sells satellite parts. The company generated $83.9 million of quarterly revenue, up from $46.3 million a year earlier, while the launch unit brought in $21 million, roughly in line with $21.3 million in the quarter corresponds to the previous year.
But the company's small Electron vehicle, which sells for about $8.5 million per mission, is now the third most launched orbital rocket in the world. The company has launched a company record 12 missions so far this year. And Rocket Lab added $55 million in new launch contracts to Electron's backlog in the third quarter.
The development of Neutron – as well as the Archimedes engines that power it – remains a key point for investors, as high research and development spending accounts for the majority of Rocket Lab's quarterly losses.
Neutron is seen as crucial for Rocket Lab to enter larger markets, including a broader range of national security missiles in the US. The company continues to expect Neutron to launch in mid-2025 and has outlined a number of milestones on the rocket's path to launch – including assembling and testing the flight hardware, firing “multiple” Archimedes engines and the Continuing ongoing work on the Virginia launch pad infrastructure.
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