Rocket Lab
New Zealand and American public spaceflight company / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Rocket Lab USA, Inc. is a publicly traded aerospace manufacturer and launch service provider[7] that operates and launches lightweight Electron orbital rockets[7] used to provide dedicated launch services for small satellites[8] as well as a suborbital variant of Electron called HASTE (Hypersonic Accelerator Suborbital Test Electron).[9] The company plans to build a larger Neutron rocket[10] as early as 2025.[11] Electron rockets have launched to orbit 46 times from either Rocket Lab's Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand[7] or at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport in Wallops Island, Virginia, United States.[12] Rocket Lab has launched one sub-orbital HASTE rocket to date from Wallops Island, Virginia.[13] In addition to the Electron, Neutron, and HASTE launch vehicles, Rocket Lab manufactures and operates spacecraft and is a supplier of satellite components including star trackers, reaction wheels, solar cells and arrays, satellite radios, separation systems, as well as flight and ground software.[14]
Company type | Public |
---|---|
| |
Industry | Launch service provider |
Founded | June 2006; 17 years ago (2006-06) in Auckland[1] |
Founder | Peter Beck |
Headquarters | Long Beach, California, U.S.[2] |
Key people | Peter Beck (CEO & CTO) |
Products | Electron rocket Rutherford rocket engine Curie and HyperCurie rocket engine Photon satellite bus family Neutron rocket |
Revenue | US$245 million (2023) |
US$−135 million (2022) | |
US$−183 million (2023) | |
Total assets | US$940 million (December 2023[3]) |
Total equity | US$673 million (2022) |
Number of employees | c. 1,650[4] (January 2024) |
Website | rocketlabusa |
Footnotes / references [5][6] |
The company was founded in New Zealand in 2006.[15] By 2009,[16] the successful launch of Ātea-1[16] made the organization the first private company in the Southern Hemisphere to reach space.[15] The company established headquarters in California, US in 2013[17] and developed the expendable[18] Electron rocket.[19] The first launch of the rocket took place in May 2017.[20] In August 2021, the company became a public company, listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange through a SPAC merger.[21] In May 2022, after four years of development, the Electron booster attempted recovery by a helicopter.[22]In 2024, the company announced that a first stage booster that was recovered on an earlier launch will be reused on a future launch, marking the first time Electron would reuse the full first stage.[23]In August 2020 the company launched its first in-house designed and built satellite, Photon.[24]
The company also builds and operates satellites for the Space Development Agency,[25][26] a space-based missile defense program of the United States Space Force established by Michael D. Griffin (who later became a Rocket Lab board member) in his role as Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering during the Trump administration.[27][28] The company's participation drew controversy in New Zealand,[29] where members of parliament noted the company is contributing to the "weaponization of space" and could be in violation of New Zealand's nuclear-free zone laws.[30] The Union of Concerned Scientists warns SDA will escalate global tensions and called the project "fundamentally destabilizing".[31]
Rocket Lab has acquired four companies to expand its space systems offering including Sinclair Interplanetary in April 2020,[32] Advanced Solutions Inc. in December 2021,[33] SolAero Holdings Inc in January 2022,[34] and Planetary Systems Corporation in December 2021.[35] As of December 2023, the company had approximately 1,650 full time permanent employees globally.[36] Approximately 700 of these employees are based in New Zealand with the remainder in the United States.[37] The acquisition of SolAero added 425 staff members in the United States in January 2022.[38][39] Two attempts have been made to recover an Electron booster by helicopter.[22][40] In addition, six attempts have been made at soft water recovery.[41][42][43][44][45][46] As of 2022, the company is developing the bigger Neutron reusable unibody rocket;[11] multiple spacecraft buses,[47] and rocket engines: Rutherford,[48] Curie,[49] HyperCurie,[50] and Archimedes.[51]In mid 2024, the company entered the engine test phase in Neutron’s development process.[52]