1 month ago
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Brett Schafer, The Motley Fool
Thu, July 30, 2026 astatine 7:05 AM CDT 4 min read
The aerial has begun to flight from immoderate overinflated corners of the banal market, bringing down space stocks successful the process. Space Exploration Technologies (NASDAQ: SPCX) has rapidly fallen astir 40% from highs acceptable astir the clip of its archetypal nationalist offering (IPO) successful June, portion Rocket Lab (NASDAQ: RKLB) is down astir 60% from its 52-week high, opening its tumble astir the aforesaid clip SpaceX made its debut.
Investors are opening to instrumentality different look astatine these abstraction stocks and assessing whether they are a bully worth close now. But is Rocket Lab a amended abstraction banal to bargain than SpaceX? Here's my take.
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Tremendous maturation up
As competitors successful the abstraction economy, some Rocket Lab and SpaceX person important maturation opportunities successful the years ahead. There are an estimated 1 cardinal satellites projected for motorboat into orbit, compared to astir 15,000 progressive today, creating an tremendous backlog for motorboat providers similar SpaceX and Rocket Lab.
SpaceX is the existent person successful motorboat services, generating $4 cardinal successful gross past twelvemonth and readying to support increasing with the upcoming debut of its Starship rocket. Rocket Lab's motorboat gross was conscionable $199 cardinal successful 2025, but is acceptable to turn with the debut of its ain larger rocket, the Neutron, sometime aboriginal this twelvemonth oregon successful 2027. There are fewer -- if immoderate -- competitors that tin capitalize connected this outer backlog similar these 2 businesses.
Both businesses besides person important opportunities with their ain outer constellations, and SpaceX is again the person with its Starlink net service. Starlink generated $11.4 cardinal successful gross successful 2025 and is increasing 50% twelvemonth implicit year. Rocket Lab plans to physique its ain vertically integrated work done its precocious announced $8 cardinal acquisition of Iridium, but it is inactive years distant from what SpaceX tin connection today.
Founder leadership, but 1 with much absorption
Similarities proceed betwixt Rocket Lab and SpaceX, with some operating arsenic founder-led businesses. Rocket Lab was created from scratch by Peter Beck successful New Zealand, an improbable spot to physique 1 of the modern commercialized abstraction giants. Beck has a fantastic way grounds of motorboat occurrence with caller rockets and has been focused intensely connected this concern for 2 decades now, contempt the likelihood stacked against him.
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