MARLOW CROSSING, Conn. — Rocket Lab said this week that its Neutron rocket will not make its first launch until 2027. Shares fell roughly 10 percent in after-hours trading.
Trent Oolander, 41, a retail investor in Garnet Ridge, Ind., who said he has owned 300 shares since 2024, described the delay as good news. He said the rocket had been scheduled to launch this year, and that the company has now moved the date into a year that is further away, which he called a sign of discipline. “The new date is closer than the old one, because it is later and we are now sure of it,” Oolander said.
Oolander said he was not worried about the share price. “The stock fell because people did not understand the timeline,” he said. “A rocket that is not flying yet cannot crash, so the stock should go up when it does not fly.”
Dr. Chad Brickhouse, a senior fellow at the Institute for Common Sense, said by phone from a car wash that the delay proves the company is serious. “If you were going to fly a rocket with holes in it, that would be the news,” Brickhouse said. “Instead they found the holes and wrote down a later date. That is just common sense.” He then asked the reporter to hold, and the sound of the car wash could be heard for about 40 seconds.
Oolander said the after-hours decline of about 10 percent had nothing to do with the rocket.
Asked whether the company would move the launch date again, Oolander said he hoped so. “Every time it moves, it moves toward the future,” he said. “That is the only direction a rocket can go.”