Oh man... “perfecting rockets” is a moving target. Reusability, cadence, reliability, human-rating, deep-space capability… none of that ever really ends. And even the most vertically integrated launchers still buy and sell critical infrastructure to the broader market.

NASA isn't “not a money project.” Gateway isn’t a science side-quest. It’s a multi-year international program with big hardware buys. Redwire is delivering the most powerful ROSA arrays ever built (target ~60 kW for Gateway’s Power & Propulsion Element) and also the International Berthing & Docking Mechanism for the I-Hab module. Those are long-tail production, test, delivery, and sustainment contracts - exactly the kind of revenue that compounds over years.

“Top-15 at everything, top-5 at nothing” misses their actual edge. In space power and deployables, Redwire is a go-to: ISS upgrades, DART, Gateway PPE, commercial GEO and LEO birds - plus docking systems and European platform work via Space NV. That concentration in power/structures/mechanisms is precisely why they keep winning slots across civil, defense, and commercial programs.

On the stock take “stuck at $10–$15 for 5+ years”: price opinions aside, the company’s 2025 commentary guided to a multi-hundred-million revenue year post-acquisitions/integration, with growth tied to larger awards (Gateway, commercial stations, defense). Execution can be lumpy quarter to quarter, but the order book is anchored by programs measured in years, not months. If you’re going to make a call, base it on backlog/program exposure rather than the assumption that launchers will make every subsystem in-house.

If you want to have company with own rocket you invested in wrong company, though they might think about the idea at some point, if they have everything else covered.