Rocket Lab Stock Soars Higher as Neutron's Maiden Flight Nears

Rocket Lab Corp. RKLB is currently on the cusp of a transformative milestone with its highly anticipated Neutron rocket approaching its maiden flight in the second half of 2025. To expand beyond its small-launcher Electron and capture the medium-lift payload market, while positioning itself to compete with heavy-lift providers like SpaceX, Rocket Lab launched the Neutron program.

This medium-class, reusable vehicle, with a potential payload capacity of approximately 15,000 kg, aims to offer flexible, cost-effective access to space for a wide range of customers, including satellite constellations, government missions, and commercial payloads. 

To this end, it is imperative to mention that in May 2025 Rocket Lab announced that it will launch its Neutron rocket for the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory for a Rocket Cargo mission to support point-to-point cargo transportation, establishing a new era of commercial launch capability to advance global defense logistics for the nation. 

Earlier in February, the company revealed details about the ocean landing platform, a modified barge, for Neutron missions returning to Earth. Customized modification is currently ongoing on this barge, including autonomous ground support equipment to capture and secure the landed Neutron, blast shielding to protect equipment during Neutron landings, and station-keeping thrusters for precise positioning. 

These announcements implying consistent progress in the Neutron program have bolstered investor confidence, reflected in Rocket Lab’s share price performance. While the company’s year-to-date price increase has been modest, the past three months have seen a sharper uptick, underscoring growing optimism around Neutron’s prospects as new milestones mentioned above are achieved. RKLB’s shares gained 40% year to date, while the same soared 103.6% over the past three months.

Other Stocks One Should Keep an Eye on

The space launch services market has been witnessing solid growth trends driven by surging demand for satellite constellations, increasing government and defense investments, and the growing need for low-cost, reliable access to space to support telecommunications, Earth observation, and national security missions.

Therefore, investors interested in this business realm may keep RKLB along with other industry players like Boeing BA and Lockheed Martin LMT in their watchlist, which already enjoy an established footprint in the space launch market. 

Boeing’s products have powered human space exploration for six decades now. The company is the prime contractor for the design, development and production of the core stage, upper stages and flight avionics suite used in NASA’s Space Launch System, the only proven deep-space optimized, super-heavy lift rocket built to carry astronauts and cargo farther and faster than any rocket in history.

Lockheed Martin is another space stock that has contributed significantly to various space missions with its breakthrough technologies. It is the prime contractor involved in the construction of Orion, the spacecraft that will carry the crew of four astronauts in the Artemis II lunar mission.

The Zacks Rundown for RKLB

Shares of RKLB have gained 630.8% in the past year compared with the industry’s 50.9% growth.

With respect to valuation, the company trades at a premium. RKLB currently trades at a forward 12-month Price/Sales of 22.49X compared with its industry’s average of 10.06X.

The Zacks Consensus Estimates for RKLB’s 2025 and 2026 loss have improved over the past 60 days. 

RKLB stock currently carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).

You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
 

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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