RKLB

Rocket Lab appointed Agostino Ricupati as VP, Corporate Controller, and Chief Accounting Officer (principal accounting officer) effective June 3, 2026, with CFO Adam Spice stepping down from the principal accounting officer role while retaining his CFO title. Ricupati's compensation includes a $350,000 base salary, 40% target bonus, $50,000 sign-on, up to $5,000/month temporary housing for seven months, and a $3,000,000 RSU award vesting over four years.

At the May 20, 2026 Annual Meeting, stockholders approved four proposals: election of Edward H. Frank as Class II director, ratification of Deloitte & Touche as auditor, advisory say-on-pay approval, and — most materially — approval of a subsidiary merger to eliminate the pass-through voting provision that previously required dual approval (by both Rocket Lab Corporation and its stockholders) before certain actions could be taken at the Rocket Lab USA subsidiary level.

Rocket Lab established a $3 billion at-the-market equity offering program on May 20, 2026, entering an Equity Distribution Agreement with 16 sales agents including Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, BofA, and Deutsche Bank. The program allows share sales via direct ATM transactions or through forward sale structures (both initially priced and collared forwards), with commissions capped at 2% of proceeds, under the existing S-3 shelf registration.

Rocket Lab filed a prospectus supplement to register for resale 2,277,002 shares of common stock issued April 14, 2026 in a private placement to selling stockholders as consideration in the acquisition of Mynaric AG, pursuant to the Stock Purchase Agreement dated September 25, 2025.

Q1 2026 revenue hit $200.3M, up 63% year-over-year, with both segments firing. Space Systems contributed $136.7M (+57%), driven by spacecraft manufacturing scale and the GEOST acquisition. Launch Services posted $63.7M (+79%), benefiting from six Electron missions versus five in the prior-year period, a step-up in revenue per launch to $9.3M from $7.1M, HASTE over-time mission recognition, and incremental study revenue. Backlog expanded to $2.22B exiting Q1 from $1.85B at year-end 2025, with space systems at $1.30B and launch at $921M, signaling sustained forward demand. Margin trajectory is the clearest positive in the print. Gross margin expanded to 38.2% from 28.8%, a 940bp improvement, as revenue grew faster than cost of revenues — cost per Electron launch fell to $5.4M from $5.7M while revenue per launch surged. The operating loss narrowed only modestly in dollar terms to $56.0M from $59.2M because R&D jumped 46% to $80.5M, almost entirely Neutron development, Archimedes engine qualification, and spacecraft portfolio expansion. SG&A rose $12.6M, though $11.2M of that was a one-time SBC charge from RSU cancellations. Interest expense collapsed 81% to $1.3M following extinguishment of the Trinity loan and conversion of senior notes, while interest income surged to $10.1M on a much larger cash balance, narrowing the pre-tax loss to $46.8M. On the balance sheet, Rocket Lab raised $445.6M via ATM equity in Q1, ending the quarter with $1.2B cash plus $271M in marketable securities — ample runway to absorb ongoing Neutron burn without near-term financing pressure. Neutron remains the central thesis: management flagged "significant milestones" including first-flight hardware integration and fairing system progress, targeting a debut launch later in 2025, but acknowledged that new launch vehicle development carries meaningful schedule risk. Capital expenditures were $27.1M in the quarter and will scale with Neutron infrastructure needs. The operating cash outflow of $50.3M was modestly better than the prior-year $54.2M despite the heavier investment cycle, and the combination of rising launch cadence, expanding backlog, and improving launch economics suggests the business is tracking toward the inflection where Neutron either validates the premium multiple or becomes the primary overhang.

Rocket Lab reported Q1 2026 financial results via press release on May 7, 2026, covering the quarter ended March 31, 2026. The exhibit (99.1) is furnished but not filed, so it carries no Section 18 liability.

Rocket Lab closed its acquisition of Mynaric AG on April 14, 2026, paying $155.3 million in aggregate consideration consisting of a nominal cash payment plus 2,277,002 shares of RKLB common stock (109,943 shares held in indemnity escrow); the deal was originally structured around a $75 million base price plus seller pre-closing investments in Mynaric, and sellers are no longer eligible for earnout payments. The shares were issued as unregistered securities under Section 4(a)(2) and/or Regulation D.

CEO and Chairman Sir Peter Beck voluntarily reduced his annual base salary to $1.00 (or New Zealand statutory minimum), waived all bonus entitlements, and forfeited 392,155 unvested RSUs, with the freed capital redirected toward company R&D and strategic priorities.

Rocket Lab established a $1 billion at-the-market equity offering program on March 17, 2026, entering an Equity Distribution Agreement with 11 broker-dealers including Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, BofA Securities, and Deutsche Bank as sales agents. The program also permits forward sale structures — both Initially Priced and Collared Forward Transactions — allowing RKLB to lock in pricing on future share issuances with up to 2% commission per transaction, drawing on the shelf registration originally filed March 11, 2025.

Rocket Lab set its 2026 annual meeting for May 20, 2026 — more than 30 days earlier than the anniversary of the 2025 meeting — and established March 22, 2026 as the deadline for stockholder proposals under Rule 14a-8 and director nominations under its Bylaws.