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Record revenue of $234.1 million in the quarter to June 30, 2026, up 62%, and a record backlog of $2.36 billion, with the growth almost entirely in Space Systems while launch revenue fell. Rocket Lab has funded the $27.00-a-share cash half of the Iridium acquisition by selling about 29.3 million shares for $1.944 billion and by terminating the $3.6 billion bridge commitment, and Iridium’s stockholders vote on the merger on September 24.
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Iridium’s special meeting is at 8:30 a.m. Eastern on September 24, 2026 and the merger needs the affirmative vote of a majority of its outstanding shares. The record date was August 21, 2026. The cash half of the consideration, $27.00 per share, has already been funded: Rocket Lab raised about $1.944 billion by selling about 29.3 million shares under an at-the-market programme and terminated the $3.6 billion bridge commitment on September 15, 2026.
Rocket Lab guides the third quarter of 2026 to an adjusted EBITDA loss of $17-23 million and lost $94,280 thousand on a GAAP basis in the six months to June 30. Neutron, the vehicle the medium-lift story rests on, is targeted for delivery to the launch pad in the fourth quarter of 2026 and has not flown; the filing says any delay across engineering, manufacturing, testing or infrastructure can push the first flight back and may require more capital than anticipated. The Iridium merger is subject to a stockholder vote on September 24, 2026 requiring a majority of the outstanding shares, and the cash half of $27.00 per Iridium share has already been funded by issuing about 29.3 million Rocket Lab shares.
All financial figures on this page come from the Form 10-Q filed on August 10, 2026 for the quarter and six months ended June 30, 2026, in thousands of dollars, and from the company’s results release of the same day for the non-GAAP measures and the guidance. The market capitalisation of about $41.8 billion is a Merlintrader calculation from the September 21, 2026 close of $69.89 and the 598,350,482 shares outstanding at August 5, 2026 reported on the cover of that filing; the weighted-average count in the accounts, 629,681,803, includes approximately 41 million Series A convertible participating preferred shares on an as-if-converted basis and is not used for the capitalisation. Cash and securities is the $2,129,485 thousand of cash and cash equivalents plus the $258,100 thousand of marketable securities the filing states, of which $172,700 thousand is current. The Iridium consideration, the exchange ratio collar and the financing are as described in the merger filings listed below; the transaction had not closed on the date of this page. The provider fields for ownership, short interest and consensus could not be read on September 22, 2026 and are not estimated here.
The quarter was a record on the two measures the company watches: revenue of $234.1 million, up 62% year over year and $34 million above the previous record, and backlog of $2.36 billion, up 137%. Nearly all of the growth is Space Systems, which went from $97.9 million to $189.5 million, and it is the segment that carries the strategy: Rocket Lab now makes the components, builds the spacecraft and launches them. Since June 30 it has added more than $1 billion of new contracts, says it entered the third quarter with 90 or more launches in the launch backlog, won a $397 million award to deliver multiple Flatellite spacecraft on Neutron for the Space Force’s airborne moving target indicator programme, took more than $160 million across two contracts to build three geostationary satellites, and agreed with the Space Force’s Rocket Systems Launch Program to execute twelve suborbital launches with options for six more at a total potential value of $266 million. On September 19 it flew its 96th Electron mission and its 17th launch of 2026, extending a 100% success record with Synspective and leaving fifteen more missions manifested for that customer through the end of the decade. And the financing for the largest step it has ever taken is closed: the $3.6 billion bridge commitment was terminated on September 15 because the equity and the amended Iridium credit agreement covered the cash half of the merger, and the adjusted EBITDA loss narrowed from $27.58 million to $8.83 million in the quarter and from $57.55 million to $20.58 million over six months.
The revenue record has a shape inside it that matters. Space Systems grew from $97.9 million to $189.5 million, but Launch Services, the business Rocket Lab was built on, fell from $46.6 million to $44.6 million, and 59.7% of the quarter’s revenue was recognised over time rather than at a point in time, which is the accounting of a manufacturing and development business rather than of a launch cadence. The company still lost $49.3 million on a GAAP basis in the quarter and $94.3 million in six months, used $134.4 million of cash in operations in those six months, and guides to another adjusted EBITDA loss of $17-23 million in the third quarter. The Iridium acquisition is the largest thing on the page and it is not yet approved: it needs a majority of Iridium’s outstanding shares on September 24, and the cash half of $27.00 per share was funded by issuing about 29.3 million Rocket Lab shares for $1.944 billion, which is dilution delivered before the asset is. Neutron, the vehicle the whole medium-lift story rests on, has not flown, and the company’s own risk language lists the delay scenarios. And a share price of $69.89 puts the exchange ratio inside the collar, so the number of shares Iridium holders receive depends on the market between now and closing.
The Form 10-Q filed on August 10, 2026 carries the unaudited accounts for the quarter and six months ended June 30, 2026, in thousands. Revenue of $234,066 against $144,498, made of product revenue of $181,347 against $92,725 and service revenue of $52,719 against $51,773; cost of revenue of $149,490 against $98,110 and a gross profit of $84,576 against $46,388; research and development net of $82,429 and selling, general and administrative of $59,661, for total operating expenses of $142,090 against $106,027 and an operating loss of $57,514; interest income of $16,486 and interest expense of $581, for total other income of $13,583; and a net loss of $49,258 against $66,414, or $0.08 a share against $0.13 on 629,681,803 weighted-average shares. For the six months the net loss was $94,280 against $127,030. The balance sheet at June 30, 2026 shows cash and cash equivalents of $2,129,485 against $828,660 at December 31, 2025, marketable securities current of $172,700, accounts receivable of $112,889, contract assets of $94,245, inventories of $266,931 and total current assets of $2,895,759. Operating activities used $134,407 in the six months against $77,467, and cash and restricted cash ended at $2,137,898. Backlog was $2,355,949 at June 30, 2026, of which about 45% is expected within twelve months. Electron had flown 87 successful missions through June 30, 2026, delivering over 250 spacecraft.
Rocket Lab is an end-to-end space company: it launches small satellites on Electron, is developing the much larger reusable Neutron, and manufactures spacecraft and their components. The quarter to June 30, 2026 was its best on record — revenue of $234.1 million, up 62%, and backlog of $2.36 billion — but the growth came from Space Systems while launch revenue declined, and the company lost $49.3 million. What makes this page different from a results update is the transaction: on June 28, 2026 Rocket Lab agreed to acquire Iridium Communications for $27.00 in cash plus shares per Iridium share, funded by an at-the-market programme that has already raised about $1.944 billion, and Iridium’s stockholders vote on September 24. If it closes, Rocket Lab owns the constellation as well as the rocket that can service it.
The Owl By The Dozen mission launched from Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand and delivered the 12th StriX satellite into a 572 kilometre low Earth orbit for Synspective. Rocket Lab states it was the 96th Electron flight and the 17th launch of 2026, that it extends a 100% mission success record across its partnership with Synspective, and that it has 15 further dedicated missions manifested with that customer through the end of the decade.
The Space Bureau, Office of International Affairs and Office of Engineering and Technology of the Federal Communications Commission released a public notice accepting for filing the applications of Rocket Lab and Iridium for consent to the transfer of control of Iridium’s Commission authorisations, and set the pleading cycle in GN Docket No. 26-257: comments and petitions are due October 15, 2026, responses on October 30, 2026 and replies on November 9, 2026. The FCC consent is one of the conditions to closing, not a formality of it.
Rocket Lab terminated in full the $3.6 billion 364-day senior secured bridge facility committed by Deutsche Bank and Wells Fargo on June 28, 2026, because the commitment reduced automatically as the equity programme and the $1.775 billion of term loans under the amended Iridium credit agreement came in. As of September 15 the company had raised about $1.944 billion in gross proceeds by selling about 29.3 million shares under the at-the-market programme that began on August 13, 2026. The same filing records Iridium’s Consent and Amendment No. 4 to its credit agreement, which provides that the merger will not be a change of control.
The Form S-4 was declared effective, Iridium filed the definitive proxy statement and Rocket Lab the final prospectus, and the documents were sent to Iridium’s stockholders from about August 26. Iridium’s special meeting is set for 8:30 a.m. Eastern on September 24, 2026, in virtual format, with a record date of August 21, 2026, and the merger needs the affirmative vote of a majority of Iridium’s outstanding shares.
Rocket Lab entered an equity distribution agreement with Deutsche Bank Securities and Wells Fargo Securities as sales agents for an at-the-market programme of up to about $1.944 billion of common stock. The same day it reported progress on the Iridium acquisition.
Second-quarter revenue of $234 million, up 62% year over year, and backlog of $2.36 billion, up 137%, with more than $1 billion of new contracts entered into in the third quarter so far. Rocket Lab guided the third quarter of 2026 to revenue of $250-265 million, GAAP gross margins of 29-31%, and an adjusted EBITDA loss of $17-23 million.
Rocket Lab agreed with the U.S. Space Force Space Systems Command’s Rocket Systems Launch Program to execute twelve suborbital launches supporting missile defence programmes, with options for up to six more, at a total potential value of $266 million.
Rocket Lab, Ion Merger Sub I and Ion Merger Sub II entered a merger agreement with Iridium Communications. Each Iridium share converts into $27.00 in cash and a number of Rocket Lab shares set by an exchange ratio of 0.4000 if the Rocket Lab price is at or below $67.50, of $27.00 divided by that price between $67.50 and $112.50, and of 0.2400 at or above $112.50, measured on the ten trading days ending before the closing. The company also put in place a $3.6 billion bridge facility that it has since terminated.
The company closed the acquisitions of Mynaric AG, on April 14, 2026, and of Motiv Space Systems, Inc., on May 26, 2026, adding laser communications and space robotics to a component and spacecraft portfolio that already included Sinclair Interplanetary, Planetary Systems Corporation, SolAero Technologies, Advanced Solutions and GEOST.
Both cases are set out below, the constructive one and the one against, and each stands on its own. What neither resolves is the question the September 24 vote puts to somebody else’s shareholders: whether the largest step Rocket Lab has taken is one the company can carry.
Better. Iridium’s holders approve the merger, the constellation comes inside a company that already builds spacecraft and launches them, and the backlog that reached $2.36 billion in the quarter keeps compounding: the $397 million of Flatellite spacecraft for the Space Force, the $160 million of geostationary satellites, the twelve suborbital missile-defence launches and fifteen more Electron missions for Synspective are all in it. Neutron reaches the pad in the fourth quarter of 2026 and flies, opening the medium-lift demand that Electron cannot serve. Space Systems keeps growing faster than launch revenue declines, and the adjusted EBITDA loss of $8.83 million in the quarter continues to close from the $27.58 million of a year earlier until the company funds itself.
Flat. The merger closes but the integration takes the year, Iridium’s revenue and its own debt sit alongside Rocket Lab’s $1.9 billion of fresh equity, and the combined company is larger and slower rather than more profitable. Neutron slips from the fourth quarter into 2027, which the company’s own risk factors allow, and the launch business stays at the cadence it has rather than the cadence the story needs. The share count is permanently about 29.3 million higher than before the raise, and it was raised before the asset arrived.
Worse. Iridium’s stockholders do not approve, and Rocket Lab is left with a funding programme it has already used, a bridge commitment it has already terminated, an amended credit agreement priced for a transaction that did not happen, and a share price that has to carry the story alone. Or the merger closes and the satellite operator’s economics, which are built on long-term service contracts and a capital-intensive constellation, absorb the cash that Neutron needs. The company’s own filings put the risk plainly: the commercial development of a new launch vehicle is time consuming, involves numerous risks across engineering, manufacturing and infrastructure, and any of them can delay the first flight.
None of the three scenarios above is a forecast, none is a price target and none carries a price. They rest only on figures the documents state: revenue of $234,066 thousand for the quarter to June 30, 2026 and $434,414 thousand for the six months, a net loss of $49,258 thousand in the quarter and $94,280 thousand in the six months, cash and cash equivalents of $2,129,485 thousand and marketable securities of $258,100 thousand at June 30, backlog of $2,355,949 thousand, an adjusted EBITDA loss of $8,833 thousand in the quarter, the $27.00 per share of cash consideration in the Iridium merger, the approximately $1.944 billion raised under the at-the-market programme and the $1.775 billion of term loans available under the amended Iridium credit agreement.
Four cautions govern the page. The first is that the revenue record is a segment record: Space Systems grew and Launch Services did not, and the page shows both rather than the total. The second is that the merger is not a closed transaction but a proposal subject to a vote, and every figure that depends on it is written as a plan. The third is that the equity was raised before the asset: about 29.3 million shares, roughly 5% of the count, were sold to fund the cash half. The fourth is that a share price inside the collar means the number of shares Iridium’s holders receive is not yet fixed.
The full deep dive has the answer’s building blocks: cash, dilution, catalysts and risks, every figure sourced.
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Rocket Lab describes itself as an end-to-end space company, and the phrase is doing real work: it launches, it builds the spacecraft and it makes the parts. On the launch side there is Electron, a small orbital rocket that had flown 87 successful missions and delivered more than 250 spacecraft through June 30, 2026, HASTE for suborbital missions, and Neutron, a reusable medium-lift vehicle under development with a target payload of about 13,000 kilograms to low Earth orbit in reusable configuration. On the space systems side there is a spacecraft family and a components business — reaction wheels, star trackers, radios, separation systems, solar solutions, battery systems, optical systems — assembled through a run of acquisitions: Sinclair Interplanetary in 2020, Planetary Systems Corporation, SolAero Technologies, Advanced Solutions, GEOST in 2025, and in the quarter covered here Mynaric AG on April 14, 2026 and Motiv Space Systems on May 26, 2026.
That is the structure the quarter’s numbers describe, and it is why the two segments move differently. Space Systems took the revenue from $97.9 million to $189.5 million while Launch Services went from $46.6 million to $44.6 million, so the company grew by manufacturing rather than by flying. The distinction runs through the whole page and through the accounting as well: 59.7% of the quarter’s revenue was recognised over time, which is the pattern of long manufacturing and development contracts, against the point-in-time recognition that a launch produces when the payload separates.
The company also introduces vehicles and programmes faster than it flies them, and the filings separate the two. GHOST is a globally deployable launch system whose first location, named Launch Complex 4, is to be at the Pacific Spaceport Complex in Kodiak, Alaska, with two pads and an operational debut in a suborbital launch from Alaska in 2027. Rocket Lab Germany GmbH was established to support potential future scaling of satellite and component manufacturing in Germany. Both are statements of intent in the present tense, and the page reports them as such.
Neutron is the one that matters most and the filings are careful about it. The company says progress continues across assembly, integration and testing of first-flight hardware, and that production of the Stage 1 tank is currently aligned with the target delivery of Neutron to the launch pad in the fourth quarter of 2026. The risk language in the same document says that the commercial development of a new launch vehicle is time consuming, that it involves numerous risks across the engineering and manufacturing cycle, hardware and systems testing and infrastructure readiness, and that any of them can delay the first flight.
On June 28, 2026 Rocket Lab agreed to acquire Iridium Communications through a two-step merger structure. Each outstanding share of Iridium common stock converts into the right to receive $27.00 in cash plus a number of Rocket Lab shares set by an exchange ratio, and the ratio has a collar: 0.4000 if the Rocket Lab share price is at or below $67.50, $27.00 divided by that price if it is between $67.50 and $112.50, and 0.2400 if it is at or above $112.50. The price is the volume-weighted average over the ten consecutive trading days ending on and including the second full trading day before the First Effective Time, which is the wording of the merger agreement. At the September 21, 2026 close of $69.89 the deal sits just inside the collar, so the ratio is currently the floating one and the number of shares Iridium’s holders receive is not yet fixed.
The transaction is not done. Iridium’s stockholders must approve the adoption of the merger agreement, and the vote needs the affirmative vote of holders of a majority of the outstanding shares of Iridium common stock. The special meeting is at 8:30 a.m. Eastern on September 24, 2026, in virtual format, on a record date of August 21, 2026; the registration statement on Form S-4 was declared effective on August 26, 2026 and the proxy statement and prospectus went out from about that date. The company’s own language is the same as any merger’s: the transaction cannot be completed without that approval, and there is no assurance that it will be obtained.
The vote is one condition among several, and the reconstructed page has to say so. The merger agreement conditions closing on the expiration or termination of the waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act, which the filings state expired at 11:59 p.m. Eastern on August 12, 2026; on the consent of the Federal Communications Commission to the transfer of control of certain telecommunication authorisations held by Iridium; and on clearances under other satellite, communications and foreign investment laws. The prospectus names the jurisdictions: Chile, France, Spain, Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates, and, only where the authority confirms that its approval is required before closing, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Compliance with the National Industrial Security Program Operating Manual administered by the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency is also a condition, and the filing notes that the FCC may refer the transaction to Team Telecom. On September 15, 2026 the FCC’s Space Bureau and Office of International Affairs released a public notice accepting the transfer applications for filing and opening a pleading cycle in GN Docket No. 26-257, with comments due October 15, 2026, responses on October 30, 2026 and replies on November 9, 2026. The outside date is June 28, 2027, automatically extended to September 28, 2027 and then December 28, 2027 if the outstanding conditions are the regulatory ones; both companies say they expect the mergers to complete in mid-2027. Three shareholder lawsuits over the proxy statement were filed in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, two in New York County and one in Suffolk County, alongside demand letters from other shareholders; Iridium states that the claims are without merit and published supplemental disclosures on September 18, 2026 to moot them and to preclude any delay to the Special Meeting. Two things the transaction is not subject to, and the prospectus says so: the approval of Rocket Lab’s stockholders, and the receipt of financing by Rocket Lab.
One side of the transaction has already been paid for. On September 15, 2026 Iridium, its borrower subsidiary and the lenders entered Consent and Amendment No. 4 to Iridium’s existing credit agreement, providing among other things that the transaction will not constitute a change of control under that agreement, that the requisite lenders consent to it, that Rocket Lab USA, the primary operating subsidiary, will guarantee the obligations at closing, and that the term loans may stay outstanding. From closing, the amendments raise the margin on the term loans to SOFR plus 2.50% to 3.00% depending on Rocket Lab’s credit ratings, add an exit fee of 1.00% of term loans prepaid after the first anniversary, and add a 1.00% prepayment premium for a repricing transaction.
What it buys is worth stating in the company’s own terms. Rocket Lab describes the combination as creating a fully vertically integrated space company that designs, builds, launches and operates its own constellations, delivering communications capability to users worldwide. The strategic logic is that the launch business and the constellation business feed each other. The financial logic is on the next page, and it is that the cash half of the consideration was funded before the closing.
Backlog is the number this company manages its story around, and at June 30, 2026 it was $2,355,949 thousand, of which about 45% is expected to be recognised within twelve months and the remaining 55% beyond twelve months. The company describes backlog as the estimated transaction prices on performance obligations for which work remains to be performed, included when an enforceable agreement has been reached, which is a definition worth reading twice: it is not an order book in the sense of a purchase order, it is the accounting measure of contracted work.
The contracts announced in and just after the quarter are what moved it. The largest is a $397 million award to deliver multiple Flatellite spacecraft to launch on Neutron for the U.S. Space Force’s Space-Based Airborne Moving Target Indicator programme, where the company says it is one of only two vendors delivering launch plus spacecraft. Two further contracts worth more than $160 million cover three geostationary satellites, including a prime contract with the Space Force’s Space Systems Command to build and operate two satellites for space domain awareness — the company’s first geostationary satellite production and operation for the U.S. Government. In launch, Rocket Lab says it secured more than $437 million in new launch contracts across Electron, HASTE and Neutron during the quarter and after it, taking the launch backlog to more than 90 launches, and on July 21, 2026 it agreed with the Rocket Systems Launch Program to execute twelve suborbital launches in support of missile defence programmes with options for up to six more, at a total potential value of $266 million.
Three words in those announcements carry weight and the page keeps them where the filings put them. Several totals include options across various contracts, which the release marks in a footnote; the Flatellite award and the geostationary deals are described at their headline value, not at a value already earned; and Rocket Lab Germany, GHOST and the Alaska pads are plans with dates attached rather than capacity in service.
Electron is the business Rocket Lab was built on and the reason it can promise a launch cadence at all. Through June 30, 2026 the vehicle had flown 87 successful missions and delivered more than 250 spacecraft to orbit, and the company notes that in 2025 Electron was the second most frequently launched orbital rocket. Since the quarter closed the count has moved: on September 19, 2026 the Owl By The Dozen mission flew from Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand and placed the 12th StriX satellite into a 572 kilometre orbit for Synspective, which the company identifies as its 96th Electron flight and its 17th launch of 2026. The same release says the mission extended a 100% success record across the Synspective partnership and that fifteen further dedicated Electron missions are manifested for that customer through the end of the decade.
The cadence claim is the one to hold against the revenue. Launch Services, the segment Electron belongs to, produced $44.6 million of revenue in the quarter against $46.6 million a year earlier, so more flights and less revenue in the same segment is a mix effect — what is on the rocket, and how the contract is accounted for — rather than a demand effect. The filing does publish revenue and cost per launch: revenue per launch was $9.1 million in the quarter to June 30, 2026 against $7.9 million a year earlier, and cost per launch was $4.4 million against $5.0 million. For the six months the same table gives revenue per launch of $9.2 million against $7.5 million and cost per launch of $4.9 million against $5.3 million. The company attributes the increase in revenue per launch to customer mix and mission complexity, and warns that the measure can vary considerably from one launch to the next.
Neutron is the other half. It is a reusable medium-lift vehicle designed for about 13,000 kilograms to low Earth orbit in reusable configuration and for lighter payloads to higher orbits, aimed at commercial and U.S. government constellation launches and ultimately at crew and cargo resupply. The company states that the quarter’s work covered assembly, integration and testing of first-flight hardware, and that Stage 1 tank production is currently aligned with the target delivery of the vehicle to the launch pad in the fourth quarter of 2026. It has not flown, and the company’s risk factors say so at length: delays in the production of Neutron or in the ability to produce the vehicles at the expected rate and quality could have a material impact on customer acceptance, and setbacks may require more research, development and capital expenditure than currently anticipated.
The third piece is the ground and the geography. Rocket Lab operates private launch complexes, has announced a globally deployable launch system called GHOST whose first location, Launch Complex 4, is to be at the Pacific Spaceport Complex in Kodiak, Alaska with two pads, and states that GHOST will make its operational debut with a suborbital launch from Alaska in 2027. That is a plan with a date, and on this page it is written as one.
Rocket Lab’s launch record is the part of the story a reader can count rather than model, and the filings give two anchors. At June 30, 2026 the company stated 87 successful Electron missions and more than 250 spacecraft delivered to orbit since the vehicle’s maiden flight in 2017. On September 19, 2026 it flew its 96th Electron mission and its 17th of 2026, which is the cadence it advertises: the company says Electron continues to lead the global commercial small-lift sector in frequency and reliability, and that it has fifteen further dedicated missions manifested with Synspective through the end of the decade.
The mission itself is a useful illustration of what the business now is. The Owl By The Dozen flight carried the 12th StriX satellite for Synspective, a synthetic aperture radar Earth observation company, into a 572 kilometre low Earth orbit, and Rocket Lab notes that the Kick Stage placed it with the accuracy that maximises on-orbit lifetime. That is a customer relationship built on repeat orders rather than on one flight, and it is the kind of repeating revenue the backlog is made of: the company states that fifteen further dedicated Electron missions are manifested with Synspective through the end of the decade.
Two things should be said plainly about the count. The first is that the mission total is a company figure taken from its own releases and from the 10-Q, and the page uses the dates the company gives: 87 through June 30 and 96 through September 19. The second is that a launch record is not revenue. The launch contracts are inside the $2.36 billion backlog and inside the $44.6 million of Launch Services revenue for the quarter, and the growth of the company in 2026 came from the other segment.
Revenue for the quarter to June 30, 2026, by segment and by how the contract is recognised, in thousands of dollars.
The quarter to June 30, 2026, in the filing’s own units of thousands. Revenue of $234,066 against $144,498, a 62% increase, made of product revenue of $181,347 against $92,725 and service revenue of $52,719 against $51,773. Cost of revenue of $149,490 against $98,110, for a gross profit of $84,576 against $46,388, which is a gross margin of about 36% against about 32%.
Operating expenses: research and development, net, of $82,429 against $66,134 and selling, general and administrative of $59,661 against $39,893, for total operating expenses of $142,090 against $106,027. The operating loss was $57,514 against $59,639 — slightly narrower on 62% more revenue, because the growth came with cost.
Below the operating line the company is not the same business it was a year ago. Interest income was $16,486 against $5,019 and interest expense was $581 against $7,390, so the convertible notes that used to cost $7.4 million a quarter are no longer the drag; there was a $1,954 foreign exchange loss, and total other income, net, was $13,583 against an expense of $3,837. The loss before income taxes was $43,931 against $63,476, the tax provision $5,327 against $2,938, and the net loss $49,258 against $66,414, or $0.08 a share against $0.13 on 629,681,803 weighted-average shares against 515,086,631. For the six months the net loss was $94,280 against $127,030, or $0.15 a share against $0.25.
The non-GAAP measure the company leads with is adjusted EBITDA, which was a loss of $8,833 in the quarter against a loss of $27,584 in the same quarter a year earlier, and $20,584 for the six months against $57,546. The reconciliation is the interesting part: the $49,258 thousand net loss is reduced by $10,172 thousand of depreciation, $10,771 thousand of amortisation, $19,561 thousand of stock-based compensation and $8,576 thousand of transaction costs, and by interest income of $16,486 thousand, so most of the difference between the GAAP loss and the adjusted loss is the accounting of acquisitions and of paying people in shares.
The cash flow says the same thing from the other side. Operating activities used $134,407 in the six months against $77,467, and cash and restricted cash ended at $2,137,898, up $1,304,353, because financing brought in far more than operations consumed. The guidance for the third quarter of 2026 is revenue of $250-265 million, GAAP gross margins of 29-31%, non-GAAP gross margins of 35-37%, GAAP operating expenses of $143-149 million, non-GAAP operating expenses of $121-127 million, net interest income of $21 million, an adjusted EBITDA loss of $17-23 million, and basic weighted-average shares of 641 million including approximately 41 million Series A convertible participating preferred shares.
The quarter to June 30, 2026 against the same quarter of 2025, in millions of dollars.
The Iridium transaction has a cash half and the cash half has a history. On June 28, 2026, alongside the merger agreement, Rocket Lab put in place a commitment letter with Deutsche Bank Securities, Wells Fargo Bank, Deutsche Bank AG New York Branch and Wells Fargo Securities for a 364-day senior secured bridge term loan facility of $3.6 billion, intended to fund the cash consideration. On August 13, 2026 it entered an equity distribution agreement with Deutsche Bank Securities and Wells Fargo Securities as sales agents for an at-the-market programme of up to about $1.944 billion of common stock. The bridge commitment was set to reduce automatically by the net proceeds of that programme and by the $1.775 billion of term loans available under the amended Iridium credit agreement, and on September 15, 2026 it was terminated in full before Consent and Amendment No. 4 took effect.
By the same date the company had raised approximately $1.944 billion in gross proceeds, before commissions and expenses, by selling approximately 29.3 million shares under the programme. On a count of 598,350,482 shares outstanding at August 5, 2026, that is roughly five per cent of the company, issued to pay for an acquisition that has not yet closed. The filing states that the net proceeds raised to date, together with the amended Iridium credit agreement and other available cash, will be sufficient to pay the anticipated cash payments required to complete the acquisition. That is the company’s statement and not this page’s arithmetic.
What the structure leaves behind is debt that is only repriced if the merger closes. From closing, the Iridium term loans carry SOFR plus a margin of 2.50% to 3.00%, or a base rate plus 1.50% to 2.00%, depending on Rocket Lab’s credit ratings, with a 1.00% exit fee on term loans prepaid after the first anniversary of closing and a 1.00% prepayment premium for a repricing transaction. The transaction will not constitute a change of control under that agreement, which is what allows the loans to remain outstanding rather than being repaid on closing.
The rest of the structure is older and the page states it for completeness. Rocket Lab has 4.25% convertible senior notes, issued in February 2024 with capped call transactions that had an initial cap price of $8.04 and cost $43,168 thousand; a succession of at-the-market programmes — March 2025 for up to $500,000 thousand, terminated in September 2025, September 2025 for up to $750,000 thousand, March 2026, terminated when the current one was signed, and the May 2026 equity distribution agreement for up to $3,000,000 thousand, which is the one in force at the date of the filing; and the Series A convertible participating preferred stock held by the founder, which is included in the weighted-average share count on an as-if-converted basis at approximately 41 million shares in the third-quarter guidance.
Rocket Lab is founder-led. Sir Peter Beck founded the company and is its chief executive, and the certificate of designation for the Series A convertible participating preferred stock gives the holder the right to elect at least one director for as long as those shares are outstanding; the shares convert automatically on a transfer, on the first date Sir Peter no longer serves as chief executive, on his death or permanent disability, or on the first date the preferred no longer represents a minimum beneficial ownership of five per cent. That is a governance structure a reader should know about rather than discover: the founder’s stake is a class of stock, not only a role.
Adam Spice is chief financial officer and signed the Form 10-Q. On June 3, 2026 the company appointed Agostino Ricupati as vice president, corporate controller and chief accounting officer and as its principal accounting officer; the filing notes that he was previously senior vice president and chief accounting officer of The Cooper Companies from July 2017 to May 2026, and before that held senior tax roles at Intel, McAfee, Baxter International and Arthur Andersen. He is a licensed certified public accountant. The appointment coincided with a change in that role: the same filing records that Adam Spice ceased to serve as principal accounting officer on June 3, 2026 while remaining chief financial officer and principal financial officer. It is the kind of change the page records because it is the signature on the numbers.
There is nothing in the window that changes control of the company. The Iridium transaction is an acquisition by Rocket Lab, not a combination of equals: the surviving entity is a Rocket Lab subsidiary, the consideration is cash and Rocket Lab shares, and the vote being asked for is Iridium’s. What does change is the size and the complexity of what management runs. The company itself describes the integration risk in the ordinary language of its filings, and the quarter’s transaction costs of $8,576 thousand, inside the adjusted EBITDA reconciliation, are the first visible price of it.
The common stock trades on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under RKLB; the Form 10-Q cover reports 598,350,482 shares of common stock outstanding as of August 5, 2026. The reference price on this page is the September 21, 2026 close of $69.89.
The market capitalisation of about $41.8 billion is a Merlintrader calculation from that close and that share count — $41,819 million before rounding. It is a calculation and not a provider figure for a specific reason on this company: the weighted-average share count in the accounts is 629,681,803, which includes approximately 41 million Series A convertible participating preferred shares on an as-if-converted basis, and the count outstanding has moved during 2026 for reasons a reader can separate. In the six months to June 30, 2026 the company received conversion notices for $142,288 thousand of principal of the 4.25% convertible notes and issued 27,760,779 shares to the holders, leaving $13,366 thousand outstanding; 2,277,002 shares were issued as part of the consideration for Mynaric; and shares were sold under the at-the-market programmes. The Motiv acquisition was paid in cash at closing — $38,885 thousand, plus $5,654 thousand of contingent consideration — and issued no shares at that point. A capitalisation built on one of those counts and a price from another date is a different number, and the page therefore names the count and the date it uses.
The provider fields for institutional ownership, short interest and analyst consensus could not be read on September 22, 2026 and are not estimated here. That is a statement about this page and not about the company: for a company whose share count changed by about 29.3 million shares in a month and whose deal depends on a collar measured on the ten trading days before a closing, the provider fields lag the filings by exactly the amount that matters.
This section is deliberately the thinnest on the page, because the source that would fill it is not one this component reads for facts. Retail commentary on Rocket Lab runs to two themes and both are visible in the company’s own documents rather than in the forums: the launch cadence, where the count is public and verifiable — 96 Electron missions through September 19, 2026 — and the Iridium transaction, where the sentiment splits between the strategic argument the company makes and the dilution it has already delivered to get there.
The page states what the documents say and leaves the sentiment where it belongs. A reader who wants that material should treat it as commentary from non-professional traders and check anything that looks like a fact against the filings: the merger consideration and the collar, the vote date, the size of the at-the-market programme and the number of shares sold under it, the backlog and the guidance are all in the documents listed at the foot of this page with their dates.
The bottom line is that Rocket Lab’s quarter was its best on record and the page has to say what the record is made of. Revenue of $234,066 thousand, up 62%, backlog of $2,355,949 thousand, up 137%, an adjusted EBITDA loss narrowed from $27,584 thousand to $8,833 thousand, and interest income of $16,486 thousand replacing interest expense of $7,390 thousand. The growth is Space Systems: $189.5 million of the quarter against $97.9 million a year earlier, while Launch Services went from $46.6 million to $44.6 million. The company still lost $49,258 thousand on a GAAP basis and used $134,407 thousand of cash in operations over six months.
The transaction is the reason to read the rest. Rocket Lab has agreed to buy Iridium for $27.00 in cash plus shares per Iridium share, with an exchange ratio that is 0.4000 at or below a $67.50 share price and 0.2400 at or above $112.50; at the September 21 close of $69.89 the ratio is the floating one. The cash half has been funded by selling approximately 29.3 million shares for approximately $1.944 billion under an at-the-market programme, which allowed the $3.6 billion bridge commitment to be terminated in full on September 15, 2026. What remains is not one decision but several: Iridium’s stockholders vote on September 24, 2026 and the merger needs a majority of the outstanding shares, the FCC must consent to the transfer of control of Iridium’s authorisations, and further approvals are required in other jurisdictions. The company’s expectation is completion in mid-2027.
Three dates frame the page after that. Neutron’s target delivery to the launch pad is the fourth quarter of 2026 and the vehicle has not flown. The third-quarter guidance is revenue of $250-265 million against the $234.1 million just reported. And the fifteen Electron missions manifested with Synspective are the clearest visible line of repeating work the company has disclosed. Everything else on this page is the context for whether the largest step Rocket Lab has taken is one the company can carry.
Every company figure quoted comes from the filings listed above, each with the date it was filed, or from the company’s own press releases listed with them. Where the transaction is a proposal rather than a completed fact — the Iridium merger, the Neutron schedule, GHOST and Launch Complex 4, the Rocket Lab Germany entity — the page repeats the company’s own qualification and does not promote it to a result. Where a figure includes options across contracts the page says so. Where two counts of the same object coexist, the shares outstanding and the weighted-average shares, the page reports both and names the one it uses.
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Disclaimer. This content is published by Merlintrader for educational and informational purposes only. It is independent journalism and research. It does not constitute investment advice, an investment recommendation, an offer or a solicitation to buy or sell any security, and it is not a research report within the meaning of applicable United States securities regulation. Nothing here should be read as a recommendation to buy, sell or hold $RKLB or any other security.
Figures are taken from public filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, company press releases and market-data providers, and are stated with their reference dates. Data can change without notice, and figures published before an earnings release become outdated the moment that release is issued. Merlintrader makes no representation that the information is complete or current at the time of reading. Readers should verify every figure against the primary source before acting on it.
Aerospace and defence technology companies, space-related stocks, companies with negative earnings and companies involved in pending mergers can be highly volatile and carry substantial risk. Launch vehicles fail, development programmes slip, government contracts can be reduced, delayed or cancelled, contract ceilings are not orders, and announced transactions can be delayed, renegotiated or terminated regardless of how they are described when they are signed. Companies at this stage of development can lose all of their value. Every reader is responsible for their own decisions and should consult a licensed financial adviser where appropriate.
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