Rocket Lab (Rocket Lab (RKLB)) shares are climbing in Friday's premarket session after the company landed a $90 million contract from the U.S. Space Force's Space Systems Command. The deal: design and manufacture two geostationary satellites. It's Rocket Lab's first time building satellites for geostationary orbit, which is a big deal — that's the high-altitude real estate where weather satellites and communications birds live.
This contract expands Rocket Lab's role in space domain awareness, which is a fancy way of saying keeping tabs on what's up there. The work will include spacecraft assembly, integration, and testing at its Long Beach, California facility, with mission operations run from its own sites. The award marks a shift from prototyping to delivering operational space vehicles, which strengthens Rocket Lab's position in a market that's only getting bigger.
RKLB Technical Analysis: Momentum and Key Moving Averages
Rocket Lab has been on a tear. Over the past 12 months, the stock is up 398.41%. That's not a typo. It's currently trading well above its key moving averages: 26% above the 20-day simple moving average of $102.06, 53.2% above the 50-day SMA of $83.96, and a whopping 93% above the 200-day SMA of $66.63. The MACD is above its signal line, which suggests downside pressure is easing and momentum is improving.
How RKLB Ranks on Momentum Versus the Market
On the MarketDash Edge scorecard, Rocket Lab scores a 98.7 on momentum — that's about as bullish as it gets. The signal is clear: the stock is outperforming the broader market, and the recent contract win only reinforces that story. The verdict? A momentum-driven narrative that looks positive as the company expands its operational capabilities.
RKLB ETF Exposure: Funds With the Biggest Weights
If you're looking at Rocket Lab through the ETF lens, here are the funds that hold the most:
- iShares U.S. Aerospace & Defense ETF (ITA): 3.27% weight
- SPDR S&P Aerospace & Defense ETF (XAR): 5.66% weight
- ARK Autonomous Technology & Robotics ETF (ARKQ): 4.73% weight
Why does this matter? Because RKLB carries significant weight in these funds, any meaningful inflows or outflows will trigger automatic buying or selling of the stock. So if investors pile into aerospace ETFs, Rocket Lab gets a tailwind — and vice versa.
RKLB Stock Price Activity: Shares were up 2.63% at $128.75 during premarket trading on Friday.
