Rocket Lab reported a net loss of US$37.4 million for the three months to June 30, more than double the US$16.7m it lost for the same period last year.

But the Kiwi-American firm also reported revenue that surged to US$55.5m, or five times the amount of its Covid-hit second quarter in 2021, and a third above its first quarter of this year.

It forecast third-quarter revenue would grow to between US$60m and US$63m, and said its adjusted earnings loss would be between US$8m and US$12m (from US$8.5m in the second quarter).

Rocket Lab finished the quarter with US$543m cash from the year-ago US$691m.

"We are encouraged by broad-based momentum that continued across our space systems business which comprised 66 per cent of our revenue in the second quarter," founder and CEO Peter Beck said.

Shares closed up 1.21 per cent to US$5.86 in regular Nasdaq trading, for a market cap of US$4.72 billion and a 14 per cent gain on the week.

The stock slipped 4.7 per cent in after-hours trading after posting its result.

The June quarter saw Rocket Lab launch its first Capstone moon mission for Nasa, and begin construction on its Neutron production complex in the US state of Virginia.

Beck said his firm was also close to completing a new satellite constellation production facility in Long Beach, California.

The new complex would be used to make satellites for a range of customers, including "17 500kg spacecraft buses for [satellite phone and broadband operator] Globalstar as part of a US$143m subcontract awarded to Rocket Lab in the first quarter of this year".

Beck emphasised earlier this month that Rocket Lab has also expanded its operations in Auckland and Mahia, and is on a recruiting drive to add another 110 staff to its local operation (which currently numbers 600; including its North American staff, Rocket Lab now employs 1400).

Its current quarter has seen Rocket Lab launch back-to-back missions for US military intelligence agency the National Reconnaissance Office, and land a contract to supply components for an upgrade to the US military's missile defence system.

Rocket Lab reverse-listed at US$10.00 per share last August, and surged as high as US$18.69 before getting caught in the tech wreck downdraft.

The firm got a shot in the arm earlier this week with a positive write-up in the Wall Street Journal's influential "Heard on the Street" column.

The paper praised Rocket Lab's logistical and financial performance and said it should benefit further from a rise in US defence and aerospace spending with Russia's Soyuz off the table (Rocket Lab is now weighing the possibility of building three Neutron rockets in 2024 rather than one).

It said Rocket Lab revenue rose 124 per cent to US$41m in the first-quarter (with a pipeline of US$550m of orders) and says its "responsive launch" capability was genuine.

"Shortly after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, satellite-intelligence firm BlackSky asked Rocket Lab for an orbit change just days before it was due to launch, in order to place its satellites more directly over the conflict zone. While changing such missions has traditionally taken months, Rocket Lab pulled it off in 45 days," the Journal says.

So why have Rocket Lab's shares been languishing? Today the stock closed flat at US$5.44 for a US$2.5b market cap. It listed in August last year at US$10.00.

The Journal said people looked down their noses at firms that went public via a special purpose acquisition corporation (a vehicle for reverse-listing).

It saw the Kiwi-American firm being unfairly lumped in with other aerospace companies that went public through SPACs, most of which were essentially pre-revenue.

"When investors finally come around to discriminating between former SPACs, they may realise that Rocket Lab has long achieved escape velocity."