Rocket Lab Sinks 9%, Planet Labs Tumbles 6%, Intuitive Machines Slides 5%: Space Rally Hits a Wall

1 hour ago 2

David Moadel

Tue, May 19, 2026 astatine 10:32 AM CDT 4 min read

Quick Read

  • Extreme momentum into the league sparked coordinated profit-taking crossed pure-play commercialized abstraction stocks; Rocket Lab (RKLB) fell 9% with Q1 FY2026 gross of $200.35M up 64% YoY and a $2.2B backlog.

  • Planet Labs (PL) dropped 6% with remaining show obligations jumping 361% YoY to $672.47M from authorities contracts, including a €240M German deal.

  • Intuitive Machines (LUNR) fell 5% with Q1 FY2026 gross surging 199% YoY to $186.73M pursuing the $800M Lanteris acquisition.

  • The expert who called NVIDIA successful 2010 conscionable named his apical 10 stocks and Intuitive Machines wasn't 1 of them. Get them present FREE.

Pure-play commercialized abstraction stocks are getting deed hard astatine midday connected Tuesday. Rocket Lab (NASDAQ:RKLB) is down 9%, Planet Labs (NYSE:PL) is disconnected 6%, and Intuitive Machines (NASDAQ:LUNR) has slipped 5%.

There's nary azygous company-specific header driving the determination successful Rocket Lab, Planet Labs, oregon Intuitive Machines. The selloff looks coordinated crossed the complex, hitting launch, Earth observation, and lunar services names astatine once. After monster runs into this week, that's a textbook profit-taking setup.

The expert who called NVIDIA successful 2010 conscionable named his apical 10 stocks and Intuitive Machines wasn't 1 of them. Get them present FREE.

The prediction-market assemblage already sees it. Polymarket's regular absorption marketplace for RKLB banal priced the likelihood of a down adjacent contiguous astatine 99%, condemnation that lines up astir precisely with the intraday move.

Momentum Unwind Hits the Whole Sector

The rallies going into Tuesday were extreme. Rocket Lab banal entered the league up a stunning 413% implicit the past year. Planet Labs banal was the existent eye-catcher, sitting connected a 111% one-year gain.

Intuitive Machines banal wasn't acold behind, up 172% implicit 12 months heading into today's session. When 3 names determination that vertically successful the aforesaid theme, the eventual reset tends to travel unneurotic too.

Retail positioning amplified the setup. Reddit sentiment connected RKLB deed "very bullish" readings arsenic precocious arsenic 88 connected May 15, past flipped to bearish (a people of 32) by this morning. One viral WallStreetBets station titled "1.3M to 450k to 1.25M" drew 1,711 upvotes celebrating a leveraged RKLB betterment trade, the benignant of euphoria that typically marks a near-term top.

The Bull Case Hasn't Changed

The structural communicative down the abstraction rally is inactive intact. Rocket Lab's fundamentals enactment the narrative, with Q1 FY2026 gross of $200.35 million, up 64% twelvemonth implicit twelvemonth (YoY), and a backlog of $2.2 billion. Its Neutron rocket debut remains the large catalyst aboriginal this year.

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