Intuitive Machines Rallies 9%, Rocket Lab and Planet Labs Decline in Space Stock Divergence

1 hour ago 1

David Moadel

Thu, May 28, 2026 astatine 10:00 AM CDT 4 min read

Quick Read

  • Intuitive Machines (LUNR) banal is up 9% and has gained 166% year-to-date arsenic the institution focuses connected lunar exploration and NASA contracts that differentiate it from SpaceX’s commercialized motorboat business.

  • Rocket Lab (RKLB) banal is down arsenic the institution faces nonstop contention with SpaceX successful tiny and medium-lift launches, portion Planet Labs (PL) banal is down 2% aft a 146% year-to-date surge based connected Earth reflection imagery and analytics revenue.

  • Investors are rotating superior wrong the abstraction assemblage aft SpaceX’s IPO announcement, with traders treating weakness successful Rocket Lab banal and Planet Labs banal arsenic profit-taking from utmost valuations alternatively than a cardinal displacement successful the abstraction infrastructure thesis.

  • 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.

Shares of Intuitive Machines (NASDAQ:LUNR) are up 9% successful mid-morning trading Thursday, portion Rocket Lab (NASDAQ:RKLB) banal is down 3% and Planet Labs (NYSE:PL) banal is little by 2%. LUNR banal changed hands adjacent $44, RKLB banal astir $146, and PL banal adjacent $49.

No institution issued worldly quality this morning, which makes the divided betwixt the 3 names the existent story. After the SpaceX archetypal nationalist offering halo lifted the full abstraction complex, wealth looks to beryllium rotating wrong abstraction stocks alternatively than leaving the sector.

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.

With immense moves already booked crossed LUNR, RKLB, and PL, today's terms enactment reads much similar positioning than a cardinal shift. The directional divided deserves your attention, truthful let's fig retired what's going connected with abstraction infrastructure stocks today.

Rotation Inside the Space Sector

Intuitive Machines is the astir differentiated concern of the three. The institution is focused connected lunar exploration and abstraction services, anchored by NASA Commercial Lunar Payload Services task orders and a U.S. Space Force declaration pipeline. That niche doesn't overlap heavy with SpaceX's Falcon 9 economics.

Rocket Lab and Planet Labs beryllium connected antithetic sides of the aforesaid niche marketplace segment. Rocket Lab builds and launches tiny and medium-lift rockets, making RKLB the astir nonstop public-market analog to SpaceX's commercialized motorboat business. Planet Labs runs an Earth reflection constellation that sells imagery and analytics, a concern with beardown caller momentum but besides the steepest one-year banal summation successful the group.

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