NEW YORK, Feb 13, 2026, 16:59 ET — After-hours
Rocket Lab ended Friday up 2.2% at $67.44. After the bell, shares ticked a bit lower, off 0.04% at $67.41. The stock moved between $65.51 and $69.60 during the session.
Investors are eyeing new defense-related launch announcements, but the real test looms: Rocket Lab’s quarterly numbers, due out later this month. The stock’s been a quick-turn play recently. Every update on its programs keeps circling back to the same theme — cadence and cash flow.
Rocket Lab, in a late-Thursday update, said its next mission will fly on the HASTE rocket—short for Hypersonic Accelerator Suborbital Test Electron. Cassowary Vex, nicknamed “That’s Not A Knife,” is scheduled for a late February launch window out of Virginia. The payload: Hypersonix’s DART AE, a scramjet aircraft that runs on an air-breathing hypersonic engine. The company is touting this as its fourth hypersonic test flight in less than six months. HASTE, according to Rocket Lab, can reach conditions as extreme as Mach 20, roughly 20 times faster than sound. GlobeNewswire
“DART AE lets us put our propulsion, materials, and control systems to the test under real hypersonic speeds and heat—way beyond what ground facilities can simulate,” said Hypersonix co-founder Dr. Michael Smart. Chief executive Matt Hill added, “Years of engineering are behind this flight, and it shows the trust we’ve built with DIU, NASA, and Rocket Lab.” AVweb
Eyes are turning to Rocket Lab’s bigger ambitions: the Neutron rocket, which is still on the drawing board and forms a key part of the company’s growth narrative. In a January filing, Rocket Lab committed to sharing a revised Neutron timeline during its 2025 fourth-quarter earnings call in February, following a stage tank rupture in qualification testing.
Rocket Lab plans to report its fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 earnings once U.S. markets close on Feb. 26, with a conference call slated for 5 p.m. ET.
After tech stocks took a hit on Thursday and dragged the Nasdaq down over 2%, Friday brought a bounce. Rocket Lab has moved in sync with that risk-off mood lately, though its news flow stems more from defense and space gear rather than the consumer tech sector.
Friday’s macro numbers threw more into the mix: U.S. consumer prices went up 0.2% in January, while core CPI — excluding food and energy — saw a 0.3% bump, according to Reuters. Rate expectations play a big role for high-growth stocks. Lower yields can lift the value investors assign to future earnings.
Company funding updates rattled space stocks again. AST SpaceMobile slid roughly 15% Thursday after it revealed plans for a $1 billion convertible debt raise, Barron’s reported, dragging down other sector names like Rocket Lab.
Still, those near-term catalysts aren’t all upside. A delayed hypersonic launch or payload test failure, for example, could weigh on sentiment before earnings and shift projected revenue into future quarters.
Next, eyes turn to the late-February Cassowary Vex launch window. Feb. 26 follows, when investors get their shot at 2026 guidance—and any update on Neutron’s schedule.
