Rocket Lab's Record Week.

A week ago, Rocket Lab was a $78 stock. Today it's trading above $131, hitting fresh all-time highs and adding roughly $30 billion in market cap in five trading sessions. The move makes it one of the best-performing large caps in the market this week — and the catalysts behind it aren't slowing down.

Let's break down what happened.

May 7th: The Triple Announcement

Rocket Lab dropped three announcements simultaneously after the close on May 7th, and any one of them would have been a headline on its own.

First, Q1 2026 earnings. Revenue came in at $200.3 million, up 63.5% year-over-year and a new company record. The number beat analyst expectations, and the company signed 31 new launch contracts for its Electron small rocket and HASTE hypersonic vehicle during the quarter alone. Five additional contracts were signed for its upcoming Neutron medium-lift rocket. Total backlog hit a record $2.2 billion.

Second, Rocket Lab and Raytheon were selected for the U.S. Space Force's Space Based Interceptor program — the orbital defense layer of President Trump's Golden Dome missile defense initiative. This isn't a study contract. It's a demonstration program to build interceptors that operate in space, and Rocket Lab is providing both launch capability and satellite technology.

Third, Anduril Industries awarded Rocket Lab a $30 million contract for three dedicated HASTE hypersonic test launches from its Virginia launch complex, with the first mission expected within 12 months. Anduril is funding these flights entirely from its own capital — not through a Pentagon program — to accelerate development of hypersonic weapons technology. This follows a $190 million Pentagon contract awarded in March for 20 HASTE launches over four years. HASTE missions now account for nearly a third of Rocket Lab's entire contracted backlog.

On top of all this, Rocket Lab announced the acquisition of Motiv Space Systems, a robotics company whose hardware has operated on Mars. The deal adds precision motion control and solar array drive assemblies that Rocket Lab previously had to source externally.

The stock surged 34% the next day — its best single-day gain ever.

May 13th: The $1.2 Trillion Number

Just as the post-earnings rally started to cool, the Congressional Budget Office dropped an estimate that reignited it. Golden Dome, Trump's proposed missile defense shield, could cost $1.2 trillion to develop, deploy, and operate over the next 20 years. That's more than six times the Pentagon's earlier $185 billion estimate.

Rocket Lab's CEO Peter Beck had already positioned the company directly into this spending pipeline during the earnings call, saying Rocket Lab is now "in the center of America's defense architecture for the next big wave of spending." Between HASTE hypersonic testing, Neutron's medium-lift capability for constellation deployment, and the Space Based Interceptor demo with Raytheon, Rocket Lab touches multiple layers of the Golden Dome architecture.

The stock ripped another 18% over the next two trading sessions. Deutsche Bank raised its price target from $73 to $120 — a level the stock blew through the same day. New Street initiated coverage with a Buy. Craig-Hallum upgraded from Hold to Buy. Cathie Wood, characteristically, sold into the rally, trimming over 163,000 shares across two tranches. ARK's track record of selling RKLB only to watch it keep climbing has become a recurring theme.

The Neutron Catalyst No One's Pricing Yet

The story most analysts are flagging as underpriced is Neutron — Rocket Lab's medium-lift rocket targeting its first launch later in 2026. Where Electron handles small payloads (up to 300 kg), Neutron is designed for constellation deployment, national security missions, and deep space exploration with payloads up to 13,000 kg.

Five dedicated Neutron launches have already been signed before the rocket has ever flown. Rocket Lab reported ongoing integration of first-flight hardware, continued qualification of the Archimedes engine, and advancement of second-stage and fairing systems during the Q1 call. If the debut launch succeeds later this year, it opens an entirely different market for the company — one that puts it in direct competition with SpaceX's Falcon 9 in the medium-lift segment.

Q2 guidance of $225-240 million in revenue came in well above consensus, with non-GAAP gross margins expected between 38-40%. The trajectory is clear: Rocket Lab is scaling from a small-launch specialist into a vertically integrated aerospace and defense platform.

The On-Chain Angle

For StockGecko readers, here's the part that matters most.

RKLB trades as an equity perpetual on Hyperliquid via trade.xyz — meaning it was tradeable 24/7 through every one of these catalysts, including the after-hours earnings beat and the overnight gaps that traditional market participants couldn't touch.

When Rocket Lab dropped three major announcements after the 4 PM close on May 7th, on-chain traders on Hyperliquid could react immediately. No waiting for pre-market at 4 AM. No hoping your limit order fills at the open. The RKLB perp was live and liquid while Nasdaq was closed.

This is the structural advantage that 24/7 equity markets provide during earnings season: price discovery doesn't pause when news drops outside of trading hours. For a stock that gapped up 34% at the open, the overnight session on Hyperliquid was where the sharpest traders got positioned.

As Golden Dome spending estimates grow and defense contracts accelerate, RKLB is exactly the kind of high-volatility, catalyst-driven equity where 24/7 access creates a real edge.

The Risks

Valuation is the elephant in the room. At $131 per share, Rocket Lab carries a market cap above $75 billion on trailing revenue of ~$680 million. That's a price-to-sales ratio north of 86x. Even with 63% revenue growth and a record backlog, the stock is priced for near-perfect execution.

Neutron is the make-or-break catalyst. A successful first launch could justify the current multiple. A delay or failure would pressure the stock meaningfully, particularly since five launch contracts are already committed.

Defense contract dependency is growing. Golden Dome and HASTE are significant tailwinds, but government programs can be rescoped, delayed, or defunded. Budget politics remain unpredictable.

And competition is real. SpaceX dominates the launch market, and its rumored IPO could either lift the entire space sector or redirect capital away from smaller players like Rocket Lab.

The Bottom Line

Rocket Lab just printed its best week ever — a 58%+ move driven by record revenue, defense contract wins across multiple programs, and a $1.2 trillion spending estimate that validated its strategic positioning. The stock has gone from $22 to $131 in the past year, a nearly 500% run.

For on-chain traders tracking RKLB on StockGecko, the thesis is straightforward: this is a high-momentum defense and space equity with multiple near-term catalysts, and it trades around the clock on Hyperliquid. Earnings reactions, defense contract announcements, and Golden Dome updates don't wait for market hours — and neither does the RKLB perp.

Whether that 86x price-to-sales ratio holds depends on Neutron. Watch the launch timeline.

Prices and data referenced as of May 14, 2026. This is not financial advice.