Rocket Lab USA (NASDAQ: RKLB) saw its stock rise 1% overnight Sunday after confirming that eight satellite platforms built under its $143 million MDA Space contract successfully reached orbit.
The satellites launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Saturday, marking a major milestone for the company’s spacecraft manufacturing division.
Rocket Lab has established contact with all eight spacecraft, confirming they are performing normally and generating power as commissioning gets underway.
The eight platforms represent the first batch of 17 satellites Rocket Lab agreed to build for MDA, the prime contractor managing Globalstar’s constellation-replenishment program.
Once fully commissioned, the satellites will support Globalstar’s direct-to-device communications and Internet of Things services for consumers and businesses globally.
The $143 million agreement, announced in 2022, was Rocket Lab’s largest spacecraft-bus order at the time and also included options for launch integration, dispensers, an operations control center, and up to nine additional spacecraft.
Each of the 500-kilogram satellites is a customized version of Rocket Lab’s Lightning platform, built and tested in Long Beach, incorporating in-house solar arrays, reaction wheels, software, avionics, and telemetry, tracking and command radios.
CEO Peter Beck highlighted the deployment as evidence of the company’s expanded capabilities, saying, “From spacecraft platform design, build, testing, and on-orbit operations, we’re executing across the entire mission lifecycle.”
Beck added that Rocket Lab’s vertically integrated manufacturing gives it greater control over cost and schedules, positioning the company to become “the partner of choice for the constellation economy.”
The successful deployment also strengthens Rocket Lab’s growing defense portfolio, with the Lightning platform currently in production for programs involving the U.S. Space Force and the Space Development Agency.
In December, Rocket Lab secured an $816 million contract to build 18 missile-warning and tracking satellites for the SDA’s Tranche 3 Tracking Layer, its largest single award to date.
Combined with an earlier $515 million SDA satellite contract, Rocket Lab has now received more than $1.3 billion in awards from the agency, with additional subsystem opportunities potentially pushing Tranche 3 work toward $1 billion alone.
Despite the overnight gain, RKLB stock had snapped a two-week winning streak last week, closing down 3% at $80.25 heading into the weekend.
Retail sentiment on Stocktwits slipped to “bullish” from “extremely bullish” levels the previous day, even as 24-hour message volumes surged 185%, reflecting heightened trader attention around the news.
RKLB stock has climbed approximately 87% over the past year, underscoring growing investor confidence in the company’s transition from a launch provider to a full-service space systems contractor.
