RKLBRocket Lab’s rocket fuel keeps coming
Rocket Lab said its fiscal first quarter ended March 31st was a big one: revenue hit a record $200 million, and the company says it beat every major guidance metric it had been pointing investors toward. That includes revenue, margin, and adjusted EBITDA — which is corporate-speak for "we didn’t just grow, we grew in a way that didn’t burn a giant hole in the balance sheet."
The backlog is doing the heavy lifting
The headline number investors will probably circle in neon marker is the more than $2.2 billion backlog. That’s Rocket Lab’s version of a near-term visibility blanket: more work already on the books means less suspense about whether demand is real or just vibes. For a space company, that’s the kind of metric that can turn a cool story into a believable business.
Why you should care
Space companies often sound amazing right up until the part where they have to make money. Rocket Lab is trying to prove it can be both a launch provider and a space systems business with actual operating discipline. If the company keeps stacking record revenue on top of improving margins, investors get a much clearer thesis than the usual "someday, in orbit" pitch.
The bigger picture
Management also said it’s guiding to another record revenue period, which tells you the company thinks the momentum isn’t a one-quarter moonshot. Big picture: Rocket Lab is still a high-growth, high-expectation name, but this quarter gives bulls a fresh argument that the business is getting more real, more scalable, and a lot less science-fair project.