Shares of small space-rocket launcher Rocket Lab (NASDAQ: RKLB) slipped 3% on Wednesday after the company -- sort of a small, publicly traded version of SpaceX -- reported modest growth in second-quarter sales, combined with increasing losses on the bottom line.

Rocket Lab grew its sales 12% year over year in Q2 -- and roughly tripled its gross profits in comparison to the year-ago quarter. Operating costs, however, zoomed 57% higher as the company continued to invest heavily in research and development and continued to build out its launch infrastructure. On the bottom line, Rocket Lab lost just shy of $46 million -- $0.10 per share, or a result 25% worse than a year ago.

(And it did this on a share count 3% bigger than a year ago, such that losses were spread across more shares outstanding).  

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Source Fool.com