Home grown space company Rocket Lab has had a downbeat debut on the specialist technology Nasdaq stock exchange.
Rocket Lab shares closed below the issue price on the first day of trading on the Nasdaq. Photo: Rocket Lab
The company founded by New Zealander Peter Beck closed at $US10.43, about 10 percent below its issue price of $US11.57 a share .
It listed through a merger with a specially set up company, Vector Acquisition, which valued it at $US4.8 billion ($NZ7b), and raised about $NZ1.1b for future growth.
"We're super excited to bring a high-quality space asset to the market," Beck told CNBC.
He said he had not paid too much attention to trading, but expected its track record of launches would influence investors in an increasingly crowded space sector.
"I don't think it will take long for investors to differentiate between the company that's consistently delivering and the ones that have aspirations to deliver sometime in the future."
Rocket Lab is based in California but has an assembly and development centre in Auckland and a launch pad on the Mahia Peninsula.
It has developed low cost rocket, Electron, to put small scale satellites into low earth orbit.
Beck, who is also chief executive, said the money raised would be used to develop its Neutron rocket for longer range jobs with heavier payloads.
"It's a tremendous amount of capital ... really puts us in a position not only to be aggressive in our organic growth but aggressive on our inorganic growth as well."
Beck has about 13 percent of the company, and many staff also have smaller holdings. However, US aerospace giant Lockheed Martin is a shareholder as is Australia's sovereign Future Fund.