Rendering of the Neutron rocket deploying a constellation into orbit. Photo: Rocket Lab

Rocket Lab reached a new record for revenue and annual launches in 2025, but its sunny financial progress was clouded by another delay for the first Neutron launch. 

Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck told investors on Thursday that after a stage 1 tank ruptured during testing in January, Rocket Lab uncovered a manufacturing defect in the tank. The company is making minor design changes to the first stage tank, which will now have to undergo a test and qualification campaign. This pushes the first launch to the fourth quarter of this year. 

Neutron’s debut has been delayed multiple times, but the rocket was previously expected to launch in the earlier part of this year.  

Rocket Lab’s stock was down more than 10% on Friday after the news of the delay. 

Beck explained the tank was handlaid by a third-party contractor, a decision driven by schedule as Rocket Lab was still commissioning an automated fiber placement (AFP) machine for future production. 

“The next tank is already in production. This time, it’s being built on the AFP machine, completely eliminating the possibility of this hand defect reoccurring,” Beck said. “We are also making some minor design changes to the first stage tank to introduce more margin and improve manufacturability. To be clear, we’re happy with the overall tank design. But since we’re making a new one, we thought we’d take the opportunity to tweak things a little bit and optimize it.” 

2025 Revenue 

Rocket Lab reported an annual revenue record in 2025 of $602 million, representing 38% growth year-on-year compared with 2024. The fourth quarter in particular was record revenue at $180 million, up 36% from Q4 last year.

Revenue growth was driven by an increase in Electron launches and growth in the Space Systems business, including work on the Space Development Agency (SDA) Transport Layer Tranche II contract and its components businesses.

Space Systems made up 67% of revenue in 2025 and grew 30% year-over-year. 

Launch accounted for 33% of revenue in 2025 and grew 57% year-over-year. 

Rocket Lab hit a new annual record of 21 launches in 2025, up from 16 in 2024. The company did not share a specific launch target for 2026, but CFO Adam Spice said to expect a roughly 20% growth in launches, including both Electron orbital launches and HASTE suborbital launches. 

Rocket Lab also grew backlog by 73% year-over-year, with backlog at $1.85 billion at the end of 2025. The company saw a large jump in backlog from the SDA Tranche III Tracking award from December 2025. Rocket Lab’s award is worth $805 million. 

Mynaric Acquisition Still in Progress 

Rocket Lab’s acquisition of optical communications terminal provider Mynaric is still underway and going through regulatory review. The acquisition was announced in March of 2025. 

Business Insider reported that German defense firm Rheinmetall is considering a bid for Mynaric to keep the company under German ownership. 

“Don’t believe everything you read in the media and online,” Beck said in regards to reporting on the deal. 

“The German government is still working methodically through the regulatory review process. So there’s not much to add at this stage while that sort of runs its course as expected,” Beck said.