Rocket Lab announced the block sale of five Neutron rocket launches and three Electron rocket flights to a secret customer.
While the company didn’t disclose the value of the contract, it said it surpassed its previous record, which was a $190 million contract for 20 hypersonic, suborbital test flights of the Haste version of its Electron rocket for the Department of Defense.
During a first quarter 2026 earnings call on May 7, Adam Spice, Rocket Lab’s Chief Financial Officer, said they ended the quarter with about $2.2 billion in backlog, with launches accounting 41.5 percent of that.
“We are actively cultivating a strong pipeline that includes multi-launch agreements, large satellite platform contracts, and an increasingly diverse set of satellite component and subsystem merchant opportunities across government and commercial programs,” Spice said. “These larger, needle-moving opportunities can introduce lumpiness and backlog growth, but they are critical drivers of long-term value and scale for the business.”
Rocket Lab Founder and CEO Sir Peter Beck said that investors should watch for “placing of items on test stands” as the benchmark of progress towards the first Neutron launch during the fourth quarter of 2026. He said they are working on an “aggressive schedule” to get to the pad.
