Rocket Lab Secures Record Neutron Deal and Moves to Acquire Robotics Maker

Overview

• Rocket Lab, which announced the contract Thursday on its Q1 call, booked five Neutron launches for 2026–2029 with a confidential customer and added Electron flights at prices in line with its standard rates.
• The company ended the quarter with roughly $2.2 billion in backlog, with launch services making up about 41.5% of that total, according to CFO Adam Spice.
• Neutron development advanced with full-duration Archimedes engine hot fires at NASA’s Stennis Space Center, second-stage separation tests at flight loads, and flight avionics integration at the Middle River site ahead of pad testing in Virginia.
• Rocket Lab is still targeting a first Neutron flight in the fourth quarter of 2026 on what CEO Peter Beck called an aggressive schedule after a January first-stage tank rupture prompted design changes to strengthen the tank and improve manufacturability.
• The company agreed to buy Motiv Space Systems this quarter, rebranding it Rocket Lab Robotics to bring space robotics and subsystems such as solar array drive assemblies in-house and deepen its vertically integrated product lineup.