From the edge of the Pacific, a small nation's aerospace ambition is writing itself into the ledgers of global space commerce. Rocket Lab, the New Zealand-born company that began by launching small satellites into orbit, reported its strongest quarterly revenue in history — US$234 million — in the second quarter of 2026, even as it continued to absorb the costs of becoming something far larger than it once was. The company's losses are narrowing, its order book is swelling, and its acquisition of Iridium signals a philosophical shift: from a company that lifts things into space to one that int