Halter<\/a> and HeartLab.<\/p>\n![\"Rocket]()
Rocket Lab’s “Blue” and “Gold” spacecraft orbit Mars. Photo \/ Rocket Lab<\/p>\n
Rocket Lab is now incorporated in the US, which, following a string of acquisitions, is now also home to most of its staff. And its Neutron rocket will launch exclusively from Virginia. <\/p>\n
But the firm also maintains substantial operations in NZ, from its two launchpads in Mahia to its satellite systems, R&D and Electron assembly plant in Auckland to its fabrication plant in Warkworth – bought from Sir Russell Coutt\u2019s SailGP – which made the giant nose cone for the first Neutron.<\/p>\n
Rocket Lab has reported first-quarter 2026 revenue that rose 63% over the first quarter of 2025 to US$201.3 million. It lost US$45m over the three-month period. It finished the quarter with US$1.5b in cash and has long said it won\u2019t break even until after the Neutron is in service.<\/p>\n
![\"The]()
The Neutron nose cone passes kayaker Rob Henson. The rocket component was fabricated in Warkworth north of Auckland, barged to Northland then taken by ship to the US. Photo \/ Rob Henson, Facebook<\/p>\n
Investors in both firms are banking on huge growth in the years ahead. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a landmark moment for Rocket Lab. Inclusion in the Nasdaq-100 reflects the extraordinary journey our team has been on, from a small company with big ambitions to a global space leader,\u201d Beck said this morning. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an honour to be recognised alongside some of the world\u2019s most innovative companies. It underscores the growing importance of the space economy and our leading role within it. We\u2019re incredibly proud of what we\u2019ve achieved, and even more excited about what comes next.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"SpaceX]()
SpaceX had 170 successful launches last year, of which 165 were of its mainstay Falcon 9 rocket and five test flights for its huge Starship prototype. Only one private competitor came anywhere near close: Rocket Lab, with 21 launches of its smaller Electron. The Kiwi-American firm’s launches were all revenue-generating. Three-quarters of SpaceX’s launches involved satellites for its Starlink division.<\/p>\n
Although they could pop with its official entry into the Nasdaq-100 on June 22, Rocket Lab shares gave back some of their recent gains today. The stock was down 10.6% to US$102.60 as the SpaceX IPO sucked all of the oxygen from the room.<\/p>\n
Chris Keall is an Auckland-based member of the Herald\u2019s business team. He joined the Herald in 2018 and is the technology editor and a senior business writer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Nasdaq-100 also includes Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Google parent Alphabet, Walmart, Tesla and Meta. Rocket Lab was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":417247,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[27309,2851,806,18836,17448,13313,30602,42,78,702,7189,103051,5812,1304,17444,239441,111,139,69,13310,29158,13650,4514,147,392,1503,223,1961,61],"class_list":["post-475196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-added","tag-also","tag-as","tag-club","tag-elon","tag-giant","tag-grabbing","tag-headlines","tag-in","tag-it","tag-lab","tag-leap","tag-make","tag-morning","tag-musks","tag-nasdaq100m","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-poised","tag-putting","tag-rocket","tag-same","tag-science","tag-space","tag-spacex","tag-the","tag-this","tag-to"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=475196"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475196\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/417247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=475196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=475196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=475196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}