Rocket Lab shares blast off after it reports revenue surge

Rocket Lab shares surged 14% to US$5.42 in after-market trading (from a US$4.77 close) after the Kiwi-American firm reported June quarter revenue that jumped 70% to US$106.2 million versus the year-ago quarter. (Update: The stock held its gain in Friday trading, trading at US$5.43 late in the session).

The increase came from more launches, but also “significant growth” in its systems business, which is set to hit headlines later this year when two Rocket Lab-designed and built spacecraft go into orbit around Mars as part of Nasa’s Escapade mission to study the Red Planet’s atmosphere.

Its net loss narrowed to US$85.9m from the year-ago US$91.5m.

The firm, which staged a US$355m convertible note offering in February, finished the quarter with US$546.8M in cash and equivalents.

Rocket Lab has long forecast it won’t hit profit until after the launch of its much larger, crew-capable Neutron rocket, which will cost customers US$50-US$55m per launch, versus around US$7.5m for the Electron today.

In May, the company said Neutron’s first launch from the under-construction Launch Complex 3 in Virginia, originally scheduled by the end of this year, would be mid-2025. The firm stuck by that revised date with today’s quarterly result.

The company said there had been a successful “hot fire” of Neutron’s Archimedes engine at Nasa’s Stennis Space Centre in Mississippi earlier this month (which close followers of the company would have already seen on founder and CEO Peter Beck’s social media).

Archimedes has been breathing fire! Started at low power and now cranking it up. pic.twitter.com/mPUlezBYRF

— Peter Beck (@Peter_J_Beck) August 6, 2024

Rocket Lab also said today it has begun installation of the largest automated fibre placement (AFP) machine of its kind into the company’s Neutron rocket production line in Maryland. The AFP machine will enable Rocket Lab to automate production of the largest carbon composite rocket structures in history, the company says.

With its first-quarter result, Rocket Lab said its backlog had topped US$1 billion for the first time.

Today, it said it now has US$1.07b worth of orders in its pipeline.

The firm, which staged its 50th Electron launch on June 20, continues its drive to increase the frequency of Electron launches from Launch Complex 1 at Mahia Penninsula and Launch Complex 2 in Virginia. Its 51st launch was on August 3. The launch window for its 52nd launch opens on August 11, potentially making it an eight-day turnaround between missions.

Toward the end of the June quarter, Rocket Lab announced more Federal funding from a US Goverment perhaps mindful of developing too great a dependence on Elon Musk’s SpaceX - for which Rocket Lab has emerged as the most serious rival (according to an investor presentation released this morning, the Kiwi-American firm’s Electron rocket accounts for 64% of non-SpaceX US orbital launches so far this year).

Rocket Lab said its satellite solar panel plant in New Mexico had received US$23.9m in funding under the Chips and Science Act of 2022 - popularly known as the Chips Act and designed to boost semi-conductor manufacturing in the US.

New Mexico’s state Government contributed a further US$25.5m.

And in flight configuration. https://t.co/IdxIO499ng

— Peter Beck (@Peter_J_Beck) August 8, 2024

New Mexico is home to SolAero, maker of the solar panels that power Nasa’s James Webb Space telescope, which was bought by Rocket Lab for US$80m in 2022. The Chips Act and state government funding will go toward developing radiation-hardened solar cells - a project Rocket Lab says will create 100 local jobs (the firm now employs 1800 worldwide, including 750 in NZ).

Earlier, Rocket Lab received a US$23.35 grant from the US Air Force’s new Space Force division for work on the Neutron’s upper stage. It has also received around US$45m in subsidies and tax breaks from Virginia toward Neutron’s assembly plant, mission control and launchpad, which are all under construction at Nasa’s Wallops Island spaceport in the eastern seaboard state.

The June quarter also saw Rocket Lab further expand the slate of work for its fully-owned subsidiary Rocket Lab National Security, as it was awarded a US$32 million ($53m) contract to contribute to the Tactically Responsive Space Mission known as “Victus Haze” in a push to give the US military’s Space Force wing the ability to rapidly respond to threats from space.

Chris Keall is an Auckland-based member of the Herald’s business team. He joined the Herald in 2018 and is the technology editor and a senior business writer.