Rocket Lab Q2 2026: revenue grew 62%, and launch revenue grew 1.8%

Rocket Lab’s second quarter was a record on almost every line management chose to lead with. Revenue of $234.1 million was the highest in the company’s history and 62% above a year ago. Backlog reached a record $2.36 billion, up 137%. Both GAAP and non-GAAP gross margins came in above the company’s own guidance. Q3 revenue is guided to $250–265 million, comfortably above where the street had it.

Two lines in the income statement explain most of that, and neither one appears in the headline.

Did Rocket Lab beat its own guidance in Q2 2026?

On margins and adjusted EBITDA, yes; on revenue, it landed inside the range rather than above it. Revenue of $234.1 million came in within the $225–240 million range Rocket Lab guided to in its May 7, 2026 8-K, and GAAP operating expenses of $142.1 million were within the guided $138–144 million. Non-GAAP gross margin of 41.5% was above the top of the guided 38–40%, GAAP gross margin of 36.1% (our arithmetic) was above the guided 33–35%, and the adjusted EBITDA loss of $8.8 million was far smaller than the $20–26 million loss the company had guided to. Against the year-ago quarter, revenue rose 62% and the loss per share narrowed to $(0.08) from $(0.13).

The launch company’s launch revenue was flat

Rocket Lab reports revenue in two buckets. Here they are, side by side:

	Q2 2026	Q2 2025	Change
Product revenues	$181.3M	$92.7M	+95.6%
Service revenues	$52.7M	$51.8M	+1.8%
Total	$234.1M	$144.5M	+62.0%

Service revenue is the launch business. It grew by $0.9 million year over year — 1.8%, which is inside the range a single mission slipping across a quarter boundary would move.

Every dollar of the 62% growth story, and then some, came from product revenue: satellites, components, spacecraft subsystems, and the acquired businesses folded in alongside them. Rocket Lab closed the Mynaric and Motiv acquisitions during the period, so some of that near-doubling was bought rather than built.

This is not a criticism of the strategy. Space Systems is now much the larger half of the business by revenue, and the Iridium agreement makes the direction of travel explicit. But it does change what the headline means. A reader who sees “revenue up 62%” at a launch company will reasonably assume the launch business grew. In this quarter, it did not.

It also raises the stakes on Neutron, the medium-lift vehicle that is supposed to change the scale of the launch line. Management says the Stage 1 tank is aligned with target delivery of Neutron to the launch pad in Q4 2026 — a pad delivery, not a launch. Until Neutron flies and carries paying customers, the service line’s growth rate is roughly what you see above.

Almost none of the smaller loss came from the business

The other number worth isolating: the net loss narrowed from $66.4 million to $49.3 million, and loss per share improved from $(0.13) to $(0.08).

Here is where that $17.2 million improvement actually came from.

	Q2 2026	Q2 2025	Change
Operating loss	$(57.5)M	$(59.6)M	+$2.1M
Total other income (expense), net	$13.6M	$(3.8)M	+$17.4M
Provision for income taxes	$(5.3)M	$(2.9)M	−$2.4M
Net loss	$(49.3)M	$(66.4)M	+$17.2M

The operating business improved by $2.1 million — 3.6% — while carrying $89.6 million more revenue. The remaining improvement, and slightly more than all of it, came from below the operating line: interest income rose from $5.0 million to $16.5 million as the company sat on a much larger cash pile, and interest expense fell from $7.4 million to $0.6 million as debt came off the balance sheet.

Put plainly: the interest line contributed about eight times as much to the narrower loss as the operations did. That is a real improvement — a stronger balance sheet is worth having — but it is a one-time re-basing, not an operating trend, and it cannot repeat at the same magnitude next year.

There is a third effect worth naming because it works quietly in the same direction. Weighted-average shares rose from 515.1 million to 629.7 million, up 22%. On a loss, a bigger denominator makes the per-share number look better: the net loss fell 26%, but loss per share fell 39%. Guidance puts Q3 basic shares at 641 million.

Where the operating leverage went

The gross-profit line was genuinely good. Gross profit rose from $46.4 million to $84.6 million, taking GAAP gross margin from 32.1% to 36.1% — above the 33–35% the company had guided. On the extra $89.6 million of revenue, Rocket Lab kept $38.2 million of gross profit, an incremental margin of about 43%.

It then spent essentially all of it.

	Q2 2026	Q2 2025	Change
Research and development, net	$82.4M	$66.1M	+$16.3M
Selling, general and administrative	$59.7M	$39.9M	+$19.8M
Total operating expenses	$142.1M	$106.0M	+$36.1M

$38.2 million of incremental gross profit, $36.1 million of incremental operating expense. That is the arithmetic behind a $2.1 million improvement in operating loss on 62% revenue growth, and it is a deliberate choice: R&D is where Neutron is being paid for, and SG&A carries the cost of buying and integrating other companies.

The question a holder has to answer is not whether the spending is justified — it plausibly is — but when it stops rising faster than gross profit.

The Q3 guide steps backwards on profitability

This is the part of the release that deserves the closest reading, and it sits underneath a revenue number that looks like a beat.

Q3 2026 guidance	Company figure
Revenue	$250–265 million
GAAP gross margin	29–31%
Non-GAAP gross margin	35–37%
GAAP operating expenses	$143–149 million
Non-GAAP operating expenses	$121–127 million
Interest income, net	$21 million
Adjusted EBITDA	loss of $17–23 million

Revenue at the midpoint is about 10% above Q2 and above where consensus sat — StockStory put the street at roughly $240.6 million. But adjusted EBITDA was $(8.8) million in Q2, and the guide is for a loss of $17–23 million in Q3. The midpoint is roughly $11 million worse, not better.

Gross margin is guided down too: GAAP 29–31% against the 36.1% just delivered. Mix explains part of that — the product and service lines carry very different margins and the split moves quarter to quarter — but the direction is unambiguous. Q2’s margin beat is not the new run rate, and management is saying so.

So the guide is: more revenue, less profit. That combination is the one to watch next quarter.

Cash is going out faster

	H1 2026	H1 2025
Net cash used in operating activities	$(134.4)M	$(77.5)M
Purchases of property, equipment and software	$(53.1)M	$(60.7)M
Cash paid for business combinations, net	$(44.3)M	—

Operating cash burn nearly doubled year over year. Investing.com’s read of the slide deck puts free cash flow at $(110.1) million in Q2 against $(77.4) million in Q1 — an acceleration, consistent with the half-year figures in the filing.

Two balance-sheet lines show where the working capital went: inventories rose from $158.4 million at year end to $266.9 million, and accounts receivable from $39.0 million to $112.9 million. Both are what building satellites at scale looks like, and both are cash that has left the business ahead of the revenue it supports.

Rocket Lab can afford it. Cash and equivalents stood at $2.129 billion at 30 June, with a further $172.7 million of current marketable securities — against $828.7 million of cash at the end of 2025. That is a formidable cushion, and it is also why the interest income line did so much work above.

The Iridium question sitting over all of it

Rocket Lab announced on 29 June 2026 — before this quarter closed, not in this release — an agreement to acquire Iridium Communications. Per the announcement and contemporaneous coverage: $54.00 per Iridium share, of which $27.00 in cash and the balance in Rocket Lab stock subject to a collar; an enterprise value of roughly $8.0 billion; closing expected in mid-2027; and a $3.6 billion bridge term loan arranged with Deutsche Bank and Wells Fargo.

That deal is the strategic logic for everything above. It turns a launch-and-manufacture business into one that also operates its own constellation and owns spectrum, and it gives the satellite factory a captive customer. It is also, on the numbers in this filing, a company with a $57.5 million quarterly operating loss agreeing to pay roughly $8 billion for one with an established cash-generating network — funded in part with cash, in part with stock issued off a share count already up 22% year over year, and in part with a bridge facility that will put real interest expense back on an income statement that has just spent a year removing it.

None of that is a verdict on the deal. It is the reason the interest-income tailwind described above should be treated as temporary.

What management put on the record

Item	Company figure
Revenue	$234.1 million, +62% YoY, a quarterly record
Backlog	$2.36 billion, +137% YoY
New launch contracts	More than $437 million signed in Q2 plus post-quarter, taking the launch backlog to 90+ launches
Space Force award	$397 million to deliver multiple Flatellite spacecraft for the SB-AMTI programme, launching on Neutron
Neutron	Stage 1 tank aligned with target delivery to the launch pad in Q4 2026
M&A	Closed Mynaric and Motiv; announced the agreement to acquire Iridium
New capability	Introduced GHOST, a globally deployable launch system

The bear case, stated fairly

1. The launch business grew 1.8%. In a company valued as a launch company, the launch line was flat.
2. Operating loss improved $2.1 million on $89.6 million more revenue. Incremental gross profit was almost exactly consumed by incremental operating expense.
3. The net-loss improvement was a balance-sheet event. Interest swung $17.4 million favourably; operations contributed $2.1 million.
4. A 22% larger share count flattered the per-share loss, and Q3 guidance implies more.
5. Q3 adjusted EBITDA is guided about $11 million worse than Q2, and GAAP gross margin materially lower.
6. Cash burn is accelerating — H1 operating cash outflow nearly doubled, with working capital absorbing more.
7. Iridium adds $3.6 billion of bridge financing and a mid-2027 close, which puts interest expense back and adds integration risk to a company already spending heavily on Neutron.

The bull case is not thin. Record revenue and record backlog are real; gross margin beat guidance; adjusted EBITDA of $(8.8) million was far better than the loss the company had guided for the quarter; the backlog has shifted decisively toward government work, which is stickier and better funded; a $397 million Space Force award pre-books Neutron capacity before the vehicle has flown; and $2.3 billion of cash and securities means none of this has to be financed on unfavourable terms.

What to check at the Q3 report

• Service revenue against $52.7 million. This is the launch line. One more flat quarter and “62% growth” stops being the relevant number entirely.
• Adjusted EBITDA against the guided $(17)–$(23) million. Q2 beat its guidance by a wide margin; whether that repeats tells you if guidance is sandbagged or Q2 was mix.
• Operating loss, not net loss. The interest tailwind is finite and reverses when Iridium’s bridge financing draws.
• GAAP gross margin against the guided 29–31%, and against the 36.1% just delivered.
• Free cash flow against $(110.1) million, and whether inventories and receivables keep climbing faster than revenue.
• Neutron: pad delivery in Q4 2026. A pad delivery is not a launch. Watch what management says about a first flight date, and about how much of the $437 million of new launch contracts depends on it.
• Backlog conversion. A $2.36 billion backlog is only worth what converts; the slide deck put roughly 45.5% inside twelve months, so watch that percentage as much as the headline.

The read

Rocket Lab is executing well on the half of the business it is quietly becoming — building spacecraft — and standing still on the half it is famous for. The quarter’s records are real and the balance sheet is genuinely strong. But the improvement in the bottom line came from cash interest rather than from the business, the operating loss barely moved on 62% more revenue, and the company’s own guidance says profitability goes backwards next quarter while cash goes out faster.

For anyone holding RKLB, the useful discipline is to stop reading total revenue as one number. Read service revenue to know whether the launch franchise is growing, operating loss to know whether the business is converting scale into profit, and free cash flow to know how much of the $2.3 billion cushion the Neutron-and-Iridium plan will consume before either one earns anything.

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Sources and method. Company figures — total revenue of $234.066 million and its 62% growth, product revenue of $181.347 million and service revenue of $52.719 million against $92.725 million and $51.773 million a year earlier, gross profit of $84.576 million, research and development of $82.429 million, selling, general and administrative of $59.661 million, total operating expenses of $142.090 million, operating loss of $57.514 million, interest income of $16.486 million, interest expense of $0.581 million, total other income of $13.583 million, the $5.327 million tax provision, net loss of $49.258 million and $(0.08) per share, weighted-average shares of 629,681,803 against 515,086,631, cash and cash equivalents of $2,129.485 million with $172.700 million of current marketable securities, inventories of $266.931 million, accounts receivable of $112.889 million, half-year operating cash outflow of $134.407 million and capital expenditure of $53.112 million, record backlog of $2.36 billion at +137%, more than $437 million of new launch contracts and 90+ launches in backlog, the $397 million Space Force Flatellite award, the Neutron pad-delivery target of Q4 2026, the closing of the Mynaric and Motiv acquisitions, the GHOST system, and the entire Q3 2026 guidance table — are Rocket Lab’s own disclosures in Exhibit 99.1 to the Form 8-K filed 2026-08-10 for the quarter ended 2026-06-30, reported after the close. These were read directly from the filing on SEC EDGAR, which is linked above. The Q2 2026 guidance the quarter is measured against — revenue of $225–240 million, GAAP gross margin of 33–35%, non-GAAP gross margin of 38–40%, GAAP operating expenses of $138–144 million and an adjusted EBITDA loss of $20–26 million — comes from Exhibit 99.1 to Rocket Lab’s Form 8-K filed 2026-05-07, and the 41.5% non-GAAP gross margin and $(8.833) million adjusted EBITDA from the reconciliation tables in the 2026-08-10 exhibit. Whether the quarter beat or missed is judged in this piece’s guidance section only against the company’s own previously issued guidance (Form 8-K, filed 2026-05-07) and against the year-ago quarter; the third-party estimates cited below are context, not the basis of that verdict.

Prior-quarter comparatives (Q1 2026 revenue of $200.3 million, +63.5%, and backlog of $2.2 billion) come from the Q1 2026 results release. Iridium deal terms — $54.00 per share, $27.00 of it in cash with the balance in stock subject to a collar, an enterprise value of about $8.0 billion, an expected mid-2027 close and a $3.6 billion bridge term loan from Deutsche Bank and Wells Fargo — come from Rocket Lab’s announcement of 2026-06-29 and contemporaneous coverage, and are attributed accordingly; that deal was announced before this quarter ended and is not new information in this release.

Not company figures, and attributed accordingly: consensus estimates (revenue of roughly $231.9 million for the quarter and roughly $240.6 million for Q3, and a Q3 adjusted EBITDA consensus near $(10.2) million, all per StockStory); the quarterly free-cash-flow figures of $(110.1) million and $(77.4) million and the backlog splits — launch 60% / space systems 40%, government 57% / commercial 43%, and roughly 45.5% converting within twelve months — which come from Investing.com’s read of the slide deck rather than from the filing. This piece makes no claim about the share-price reaction.

Our arithmetic, labelled as such: the 36.1% GAAP gross margin ($84.576 million of gross profit on $234.066 million of revenue); the 95.6% product and 1.8% service growth rates; the $89.6 million revenue increase and $38.2 million gross-profit increase, and the ~43% incremental gross margin that follows; the $36.1 million increase in operating expenses set against it; the decomposition of the $17.2 million net-loss improvement into $2.1 million operating, $17.4 million other income and $(2.4) million tax; the observation that loss per share improved 39% while the net loss improved 26%, and the 22% share-count increase behind that gap; the roughly $11 million sequential deterioration implied by the Q3 adjusted EBITDA guide; and the ~10% sequential revenue growth at the Q3 midpoint. These are approximations built on disclosed figures, not reported numbers. The interpretation — that the growth is in products rather than launch, that the bottom-line improvement is a balance-sheet event, and that the Q3 guide trades revenue for profitability — is our analysis, not a company statement, and is not a forecast.

Related: AST SpaceMobile Q2 2026, which reported the same evening and buys launches from this industry; SpaceX Q2 2026, where capital spending ran at 2.4 times revenue; and Hims & Hers Q2 2026, the third company to report that night whose headline growth rate flattered what sat underneath it.

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