Shares of Rocket Lab's Argentine-traded CEDEAR (RKLBD.BA) jumped +8.6% to $9.84 on June 11 as investors positioned ahead of the company's "Curveball" HASTE mission, scheduled for a launch window from 12 a.m. to 5:15 a.m. Thursday, June 11, from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 2 at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia . The bounce snaps a week-long slide from $10.44 on June 4, but the stock remains far below the U.S.-listed RKLB's all-time high closing price of $150.23 on May 27, 2026 . Here's what shareholders should weigh.
A Government Secret Wrapped in a Rocket. HASTE is a modified version of Rocket Lab's Electron rocket used for suborbital hypersonic research, and mission details are limited — it's listed as a government mission . That classification means investors are buying the narrative, not a disclosed payload. Hypersonic vehicles travel at least five times the speed of sound, and the U.S. military faces stiff competition in the nascent hypersonic weapons arena , which explains Washington's willingness to write large checks for test flights.
$220 Million in HASTE Deals Anchor the Defense Pipeline. The real financial story isn't one launch — it's the backlog behind it. Rocket Lab secured a $190 million contract for 20 HASTE flights, its largest launch deal ever , under the Pentagon's MACH-TB 2.0 program. On top of that, Anduril Industries awarded Rocket Lab a $30 million contract for three additional HASTE launches . Together, these deals create a recurring, multi-year revenue stream tied to national defense priorities unlikely to face budget cuts.
Record Earnings Power the Bigger Picture. Rocket Lab reported record-breaking Q1 2026 revenue of $200.3 million, up 63.5% year-over-year . Backlog rose to $2.2 billion , and the company signed 31 new Electron and HASTE launch contracts in Q1 alone — more than it signed in all of 2025 . But the company still isn't profitable: trailing twelve-month earnings per share were -$0.32 .
Weather and Valuation Are the Near-Term Risks. The forecast calls for moderate rain, full cloud cover, and winds near 16 mph during the launch window , making a scrub possible. More fundamentally, Rocket Lab carries a market capitalization of roughly $65 billion on a negative P/E ratio of -318 . That valuation prices in years of flawless execution. A successful Curveball launch validates the defense thesis; a delay merely reminds investors that rocket science remains hard — and that sentiment-driven rallies need earnings to back them up.