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RKLB · Forward model · Beck case

The Beck case, 20 quarters out

Model as of

Each segment is projected from its own operating driver, rolled up into consolidated cash flow, and discounted back to a fair value per share. The assumptions below are editable — change them and every number on this page moves with them.

Rocket Lab reports two segments, Launch Services and Space Systems, and discloses revenue AND gross profit for both - so the split here is reported, not apportioned, and the only estimated quarters are the three fiscal fourth quarters derived as the full year less the nine months. Neutron and Iridium are separate verticals with no reported past: both carry zero across every historical quarter and start in the projection, which is why nothing has been split out of a disclosed segment to create them. What is assumed rather than reported is everything below gross profit: the 10-Q states management does not review operating expenses by segment, so all research and development and all selling, general and administrative expense sits in the single corporate overhead figure, and every margin glide and capex intensity is the model's own. Overhead is one flat percentage of consolidated revenue; it was 45% in the June quarter on a non-GAAP basis excluding depreciation, and 26% is the flat rate that spends the same dollars over the horizon as an opex base growing at 55% of the rate of revenue - about 22% of revenue by the terminal quarter. The near quarters are therefore flattered and the terminal ones about right. Share count and net cash are pro-forma for the Iridium acquisition at the 20 August price: 598.2M common plus 40.9M preferred, plus 39.2M issued as the stock leg, plus 26.7M if the $1.944bn equity programme is fully drawn; net cash is the June balance sheet less the $2.861bn cash leg, plus those equity proceeds, less Iridium's $1.775bn term loan. That leaves the combined company with roughly no net cash, which is itself a finding.

RKLB forward model
Horizon
Fair value per share $149.89 +142% against $61.96
Terminal-year revenue $8.83B last four projected quarters
Enterprise value $106.25B $1.44B explicit + $104.81B terminal

What Beck's own stated end-state requires: a self-launching, tier-1 space power operating its own constellations. Terminal revenue of $8.8bn a year, 22.7% EBITDA margins, and an exit at 20x revenue - which is 88x the EBITDA the model produces. It gets to $149.34. Two things it does NOT reach. First, the implied Neutron cadence is about 11.4 flights a quarter, more than double the five-a-quarter ceiling this model's own driver sets; a scenario is a revenue tilt, not a rebuilt cadence ramp, so read that line as 'launch revenue of this scale', not as a manifest. Second, even here the value is almost entirely the exit multiple: the explicit five years of free cash flow are close to nothing, so this case is a bet on what the market pays in 2031, not on cash the business generates before then.

RKLB REVENUE MODEL

Latest: $2.43B (2031Q2E)

Period Value
2023Q2 $62M
2023Q3 $68M
2023Q4 $60M
2024Q1 $93M
2024Q2 $106M
2024Q3 $105M
2024Q4 $132M
2025Q1 $123M
2025Q2 $144M
2025Q3 $155M
2025Q4 $180M
2026Q1 $200M
2026Q2 $234M
2026Q3E $259M
2026Q4E $286M
2027Q1E $314M
2027Q2E $343M
2027Q3E $742M
2027Q4E $806M
2028Q1E $874M
2028Q2E $948M
2028Q3E $1.03B
2028Q4E $1.11B
2029Q1E $1.21B
2029Q2E $1.31B
2029Q3E $1.42B
2029Q4E $1.54B
2030Q1E $1.67B
2030Q2E $1.81B
2030Q3E $1.97B
2030Q4E $2.15B
2031Q1E $2.29B
2031Q2E $2.43B
Scenarios

Where each case comes from

Beck case — primary sources

The primary sources this case is built from — filings, calls and posts. Where they are claims by an interested party rather than disclosures, every number in the Beck column is what happens if they are taken at face value.

Valuation

From cash flow to fair value

The published model, discounted at 11.0% a year with an exit multiple of 20.0x on revenue. The sliders above do not change this walk.

Present value of free cash flow, 20 quarters$1.44B
Terminal-year revenue$8.83B
Terminal-year EBITDA$2.41B
Exit multiple, on revenue20.0x
Terminal value$176.61B
Discounted at 11.0% a year, terminal value becomes$104.81B
Share of enterprise value from the terminal99%
Enterprise value$106.25B
Net cash−$581M
Equity value$105.67B
Shares0.70B
Fair value per share$149.89
Against the deployed price of $61.96, as of +142%

9.0x is what Rocket Lab itself agreed to pay for a mature space-comms business: $8.0bn of enterprise value over Iridium's $884M of trailing revenue. The buyer's own purchase accounting marks $3.32bn of that price as indefinite-lived spectrum, so this is a transaction anchor and not a clean operating multiple; it is kept because the licence is not severable from the revenue it produces.

Read the other way round: at $61.96 the market is paying 8.2x terminal-year revenue, holding every other assumption on this page fixed. That is the number to argue about.

Quarter by quarter

The projected path

Quarter Launch ServicesNeutronSpace SystemsIridium services Revenue YoY EBITDA Capex FCF R40 PV of FCF
2026 Q3E $48M$0$212M$0 $259M +67% $45M $38M $6M +70 $6M
2026 Q4E $51M$0$235M$0 $286M +59% $51M $40M $9M +63 $9M
2027 Q1E $55M$0$259M$0 $314M +57% $57M $42M $13M +61 $12M
2027 Q2E $58M$0$285M$0 $343M +47% $63M $44M $16M +51 $15M
2027 Q3E $62M$71M$311M$298M $742M +186% $163M $134M $25M +189 $22M
2027 Q4E $67M$82M$338M$319M $806M +182% $181M $141M $34M +186 $29M
2028 Q1E $71M$95M$367M$342M $874M +178% $200M $149M $43M +183 $36M
2028 Q2E $76M$110M$397M$366M $948M +176% $221M $158M $54M +182 $44M
2028 Q3E $81M$128M$427M$392M $1.03B +38% $244M $168M $65M +45 $51M
2028 Q4E $86M$148M$460M$420M $1.11B +38% $269M $178M $77M +45 $59M
2029 Q1E $91M$172M$493M$450M $1.21B +38% $296M $190M $91M +46 $68M
2029 Q2E $97M$200M$528M$483M $1.31B +38% $326M $202M $105M +46 $77M
2029 Q3E $104M$233M$564M$518M $1.42B +38% $359M $216M $122M +47 $87M
2029 Q4E $110M$271M$602M$556M $1.54B +38% $394M $231M $139M +47 $97M
2030 Q1E $117M$315M$642M$596M $1.67B +38% $434M $247M $159M +48 $107M
2030 Q2E $124M$366M$684M$640M $1.81B +39% $477M $265M $180M +49 $119M
2030 Q3E $132M$426M$727M$687M $1.97B +39% $525M $285M $204M +49 $131M
2030 Q4E $141M$495M$773M$737M $2.15B +39% $577M $307M $230M +50 $144M
2031 Q1E $149M$526M$821M$791M $2.29B +37% $628M $323M $259M +48 $158M
2031 Q2E $159M$547M$871M$848M $2.43B +34% $678M $338M $289M +46 $172M

Every row is projected. A year-over-year change is shown only where the quarter it compares against exists — an em dash means there is no comparable quarter, not a flat year.

Track record

Model revisions

Assumptions are marked to reality as each quarter prints. Every change is appended here, with the fair value the model produced at the time, so the model's own history stays visible.

DateFair value thenNote
2026-08-21 $33.09 First publication. Two disclosed segments plus Neutron and Iridium as delayed lines with no reported past; exit multiple anchored to the 9.0x Rocket Lab itself agreed to pay for Iridium.
2026-08-25 $33.23 Merger registration statement read in full. Iridium EBITDA margins moved to management's own disclosed forecast (55.5% to 64.2%); net cash reduced by the $247M of transaction and issuance costs paid at closing; exit-multiple rationale corrected to say the 9.0x anchor is 41% an indefinite-lived spectrum mark. Fair value excludes the spectrum, and now says so.