Why Rocket Lab Stock Popped Today
Shares of Rocket Lab USA (NASDAQ: RKLB) rocketed -- what else? -- in Thursday-morning trading, shooting up 6.5% through 11:30 a.m. EDT after the satellite launcher released a very big announcement concerning NASA.
Specifically, the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration has chosen a Rocket Lab Electron rocket to carry NASA's new Advanced Composite Solar Sail System, or ACS3, to orbit. This is a "technology demonstration" mission, explains NASA, and the technology it will be demonstrating is how to use lightweight booms and a "solar sail" created from "composite materials" as the propulsion system on a small CubeSat satellite.
"Just as a sailboat is powered by wind in a sail, solar sails employ the pressure of sunlight for propulsion," says Rocket Lab, "eliminating the need for conventional rocket propellant." And "data obtained from the ACS3 demonstration will guide the design of future larger-scale composite solar sail systems that could be used for space weather early warning satellites, near-Earth asteroid reconnaissance missions, or communications relays for crewed exploration missions."
Source Fool.com
