Rocket Lab Corporation

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Rocket Lab Corporation Q2 earnings call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question, please press star 1 1 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star 1 1 again. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today,

Hello and welcome to today's conference call to discuss Rocket Lab's second quarter 2026 financial results, business highlights and other updates. Before we begin the call, I'd like to remind you that our remarks may contain forward-looking statements that relate to the future performance of the company and these statements are intended to qualify for the safe harbor protection from liability established by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act. Any such statements are not guarantees of future performance and factors that could influence our results are highlighted in today's press release and others are contained in our filings with the Security and Exchange Commission. Such statements are based upon information available to the company as of the date hereof and are subject to change for future developments. Except as required by law the company does not undertake any obligation to update these statements. Thank you very much. Our speakers today are Rocket Lab founder and chief executive officer Sir Peter Beck as well as chief financial officer Adam Spice. They will be discussing key business highlights including updates on our launch space systems programs as well as our pending acquisition of Iridium Communications. We will discuss financial highlights and outlook before we finish by taking questions. So with that let me turn the call over to Sir Peter.

It's been another exceptional quarter for Rocket Lab with some great wins after the close. We achieved a record $234 million in Q2 revenue up almost $90 million or 62% versus the same quarter last year. That's a $34 million increase over last quarter's record revenue. The launch demand is extreme. In Q2 and since the end of the quarter closed, We've signed more than $437 million in bookings for Electron, Haste and Neutron. This includes a record $266 million contract for up to 18 suborbital missions for the Space Force, our largest launch contract ever. Also, we've seen a massive surge in space systems contracts, with more than $581 million signed in Q2 and post-quarter. We ended the quarter with a $2.36 billion in backlog and across launch and space systems we've signed more than a billion dollars in new contracts across Q2 and the period since the quarter closed. It was also a milestone quarter for strategic acquisitions, having closed Monaric and Motive, and of course announcing our intentions to acquire Iridium, which will accelerate our future in space applications and involve Rocket Lab into a fully integrated space powerhouse. So with that, welcome to the beginning of our new space applications era. Appending Iridium acquisition is a strategic move that will combine Rocket Lab's launch capability and satellite manufacturing with Iridium's global satellite communications network and rear spectrum. In short, Rocket Lab will become a self-launching tier one space power delivering critical communications capability to millions of users worldwide. For years we've talked about the space value chain in three key verticals. The first is access to space and we have that with launch. The second is the hardware to do things in space once you're there. That's the satellites and their components and we have this too. The third and final vertical is space applications. The entire reason for going to space in the first place. This is part of the space economy that provides data, services to millions of people on Earth and delivers strong reoccurring revenue. With Iridium, Rocket Lab will have all three of these verticals. I've long since said that the most successful space companies will be the ones that have the keys to space, i.e. can build and launch their own satellites. Rocket Lab is one of only two companies capable of this now. By acquiring Iridium, we will accelerate our entrance into the space applications market. It will take a decade or more to build out a constellation from scratch. With Iridium, we are starting with a constellation of 66 satellites relied upon by more than 2.5 million subscribers and delivering more than $870 million in annual revenue this past year. That's an incredibly strong foundation on which we intend to build. We won't simply continue Iridium's network. We will expand upon it and scale it into untapped markets and pioneer new space-based services. Since the transaction is not yet closed, we are still only on the integration and growth planning stages. There are, however, some obvious areas to focus on, and these are aligned with the growth plans that Iridium has already shared. That includes expanding capabilities in IoT, direct-to-device, and advanced PNT, defence and national security, as well as aviation and marine safety. We can also introduce efficiencies and streamline the deployment of new infrastructure by building and launching our own spacecraft, limiting the costs and risks associated with third parties. We will fast track our ability to deliver new and advanced capabilities. It's through these growth areas that Rocket Lab will put Iridium Spectrum to more effective use extracting substantially greater capacity and throughput from the same finite spectrum allocation. We are immensely excited at what the future holds once Iridium is part of the Rocket Lab family. For now, we're steadily working through the customary closing conditions, including approval of Iridium stockholders and all the regulatory review processes. The transaction is expected to be completed in mid-2027. To the extent that we are able, we look forward to sharing updates throughout that process. Okay, on to some Space Systems updates. Q2 and the weeks after, SORUS awarded significant contracts across space systems, including a $397 million contract to build and launch multiple flat light spacecraft for the Space Force Space Base Airborne Moving Target Indicator Program. This program is a high priority for the Department of War, and it seeks to establish a satellite network to track aircraft, missiles, and airborne threats globally. In another example of our end-to-end space strategy bearing fruit, Neutron will be launching this mission. Flatellite is our high-performance, low-profile spacecraft designed for rapid production and optimized for launch, enabling us to deploy large volumes from Neutron and from other launch vehicles. There has been significant interest in Flatellite from commercial and government customers since we first announced it last year, so it's exciting for it to make its debut with such an important program. On to the next contract win. We signed two deals totaling more than $160 million to build three geostationary satellites, including a prime contract with the Space Systems Command to build two geo-satellites for space domain awareness. What's more, they will incorporate our Heimdall payload from our recently acquired company, Geost, once again highlighting the success of our vertical integration strategy. Rocket Lab is no stranger to building satellites for low Earth orbit and interplanetary missions, but these contracts are our first step into the government geostationary satellite market. It's an exciting expansion. We don't just win contracts, we execute on them. There's no better mission that demonstrates that than our record-breaking results for the Victus Hayes mission in Q2. The mission from Space Force was clear. Launch an electron to orbit in just 24 hours. We did this in 16 hours and 42 minutes, a new record. We also designed and built the satellite that it launched. Thank you for watching. and the orbit operations for the same tactically responsive space mission. For Rocket Lab to deliver all three and with record-breaking results demonstrates the advanced capabilities that we're delivering to the Pentagon at a time when space is a key strategic priority. And finally, Rocket Lab is very clearly a space leader in the US, but recently we deepened our roots in Europe with the acquisition of Monaroc. Whenever Rocket Lab makes an acquisition, we don't just carry on running it. We streamline it, introduce efficiencies, scale production, and in many cases, introduce new capabilities. We're planning to do just that with the official establishment of Rocket Lab Germany. There's a real opportunity here for us to establish a regional hub for constellation class manufacturing, as well as full-scale spacecraft assembly integration and test. This will enable Rocket Lab to serve commercial, civil and defence space programmes as a domestic European provider. A growing presence there also represents an opportunity to address Europe's launch deficit by bringing a domestic, mission-tested launch partner to the region to eliminate space access bottlenecks. Europe faces glaring gaps across both launch and spacecraft manufacturing. Rocket Lab Germany aims to address these directly, providing the region with new domestic strength in a rapidly evolving new space era. That wraps up the space systems for the quarter. Let's move on to launch. There's been huge demand driving record numbers across new contracts and launch backlog. More than $437 million in Q2 and post-quarter and 26 new launches that grew our backlog to 90 plus launches after the quarter, our highest in history. Operationally, Electron and Haste continue to lead the industry on small launch. We're at 13 launches this year with 100% mission success and on track to beat last year's launch, Tally 2. NASA has signed on for three Electron launches across two missions next year. Commercial Constellation customer QPS has signed on for another three launches, This is the third time they've done a bulk buy in less than a year, taking their total number of launches with us to 18. And we've had a confidential defence prime sign up for a pair of Haste launches in 2027. Haste Rapid Repeatable Flight Cadence was the clincher for that deal. A suborbital launch capability anchors our largest launch contracts to date, a $266 million contract from the Space Force for up to 18 missile defence launches. We bet out legacy defence primes for this contract, and it's our second multi-year, multi-launch Department of War deal for suborbital missions in five months. These launches will mostly fly out of our new launch location in Kodiak, Alaska, which opens up Pacific access for missile defence testing for our government partner. That's now six Rocket Lab launch pads across three launch sites, giving us unmatched geographical flexibility for all mission types. Speaking of our new launch location, it's time to introduce Ghost. We've mastered the art of building launch sites. Now we're making them deployable worldwide. Our two new pads in Alaska will be deployed using our GHOST containerized deployable launch site technology. Electron and HACE revolutionized small orbital launch and hypersonic testing. Now we're making it easier to deploy them wherever they're needed most, whether that's for missile defense testing or sovereign orbital launch capability. With GHOST, we'll deliver the rocket, launch infrastructure, ground support, and range control systems and shipping containers, establishing launch capability in new locations on rapid timelines. It's easy to promise mobile or deployed launch systems. It's quite another to have the proven rockets, launch sites and contracts to back them up. Once again, Rocket Lab is not just talking about it. We're delivering the real capability for real missions. Now on to Neutron. It's been another really big quarter of testing and integration for Neutron. Every part of the vehicle has now seen significant testing. As with any complex development program, we've had to tweak a few things along the way, but we're moving now into final checkouts and assembly of all of our flight hardware before integrating them at the pad. First up, Stage 1. We've pulled the new barrels and domes off the AFP for the Stage 1 tank and are moving those into assembly. For the interstage, new panels are also into the flight assembly after qualification load tests were completed recently. Production currently lines up with our target delivery of Neutron to the pad in Q4 2026. While the window for an end-of-year launch is narrowing, The work we're doing now is about risk trading, balancing the timing of our first launch against how quickly and seamlessly we can scale our tenth launch. Our focus is on the bigger picture and making sure that when Neutron flies, it enters service as a system ready for full scale production and high cadence launch. For Stage 2, the team is completing the install of flight avionics and fluid systems before it's out the door to launch Complex 3. Once it arrives in Virginia, we'll be doing the integrated fluids testing and running the flight avionics suite to validate Stage 2's end-to-end performance before we add the Archimedes vacuum engine. That way we de-risked some of the elements early and avoided added time to the schedule. The next section of the rocket at LC3 will be Neutron's thrust module. The auxiliary tanks have been installed and the fluid systems and avionics integration is finishing up now. Similar story here as well, after the install of the fluids and the avionics, we'll be taking the thrust module through the integrated systems test on the pad. Because the module is the only physical interface between the launch vehicle and the launch mount, running these tests before we integrate the thrust module with stage 1 lets us de-risk how the full vehicle will interact with the pad once everything else arrives. Down at Stennis, we're heading off into the final stretch of Archimedes engine testing. We've completed more than 400 hot fires across both Stage 1 engines and Stage 2 vacuum engines. Where early testing was all about the fundamentals like power level, mixed ratio control and achieving duration, now it's about durability and the stuff that really matters for a reusable engine. We've been intentionally running engines for extended time to prove its margins beyond what they need for a successful flight, as well as repeated cycles to understand how durable the engines are after multiple restarts and uses. With confidence in the engine, we're already into production with the full engine set for Neutron's first launch. Once we formally complete qualification, those flight engines will go straight into an acceptance test program at Stennis before they are sent up to LC3 for integration with a thrust module. And now to Hungry Hippo. The team has been busy integrating control surfaces, avionics and fluid systems, and its thermal protection system, and soon we'll be getting into preflight testing with the most innovative part of Neutron. Once that's done, Hungry Hippo is essentially finished and ready for launch. The next step will be to mate it to the interstage when it arrives, and then that will bring us one step closer to having a full vehicle at the launch pad. Out of development and into new contracts. As we race closer to first launch, we're seeing huge demand for Neutron's early flights. Like I've mentioned earlier, we've been newly awarded a dedicated neutron launch contract for the Space Force for their space-based airborne moving targets program. This mission is a strong indicator of the trust that the government has in neutron to support the most critical national security programs. and then on the commercial side, today we announced a dedicated launch for Kepler Communications to deliver their next set of satellites to Low Earth Orbit. That mission will expand the capacity of their network with on-orbit compute, optical comms and hosted payloads. And it's the first time Kepler has booked an entire rocket for their constellation rather than rideshare. Again, another strong signal of the expectation for Neutron to become the industry's alternate ride to space for medium-lift missions. To understand the momentum behind Neutron, you have to look at the broader launch landscape today. Launch has never been so constrained. The Pentagon is accelerating procurement for its top priority programs. like we've seen with the NSSL Lane 1 tripling its ceiling from 5.6 billion to 17 billion. Military spending in Europe has increased and sovereign launch remains a hot topic globally too. The truth is that if you want to book a launch now, or especially after 2029, the options are extremely limited. Rocket Lab is uniquely positioned in this sense. We have a proven track record with Electron and HACE and customers know we develop and scale reliable launch vehicles. which is why they're coming to us now and locking in Neutron slots early. Neutron is going to help unblock the industry's bottleneck, giving operators a reliable capacity they need for years to come. That wraps up the operational highlights. Now over to Adam for the financial overview and outlook. Thanks Pete.