Rocket Lab is an end-to-end space company and launch service provider, specializing in small satellite launches with its Electron rocket, which has launched 63 times as of April 2025. They are also developing the larger Neutron rocket for constellation deployment. Rocket Lab provides complete space solutions including satellite design and manufacture, spacecraft components, and on-orbit management, serving commercial, civil, and defense markets, with major partners including NASA and the US Space Force. Key products include the Electron and Neutron rockets, Photon satellite bus, and various satellite components.
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Rocket Lab attempted to recover Electron’s first stage by reentering the stage, deploying a drogue and main parachute, and splashing the stage down in the Pacific Ocean about 400 km downrange from the launch site.
The Return to Sender mission brought Rocket Lab’s total number of satellites launched to 95.
Rocket Lab provided launch services for the University of Auckland’s APSS-1 satellite at no cost.
The Return to Sender mission launched from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 on New Zealand’s Māhia Peninsula.
NASA has required certification of an autonomous flight termination system (AFTS) for Rocket Lab’s Electron launches from Wallops.
Rocket Lab’s first U.S. launch of the Electron rocket will not take place until 2021 due to problems with the flight termination system that NASA requires the rocket to use.
Rocket Lab planned to perform its first LC-2 launch of a U.S. military Space Test Program mission called STP-27RM in the second quarter of 2020.
Rocket Lab plans to conduct first-stage recovery efforts initially only at its New Zealand LC-1 launch site.
Rocket Lab completed Launch Complex 2 (LC-2) at Wallops Flight Facility in December 2019.
Rocket Lab intends to eventually perform first-stage recovery during launches from LC-2 at Wallops once recovery development is completed.
Rocket Lab has performed 15 launches of its Electron rocket to date with its next launch scheduled for later 2020-11.
Rocket Lab announced its intent to recover and reuse Electron first stages in August 2019.
Despite launching as a rideshare, each satellite on the mission will be deployed to a unique orbit using Rocket Lab’s Kick Stage.
Unseenlabs’ first BRO satellite was launched to orbit by Rocket Lab in August 2019.
The Electron rocket lifted off from Rocket Lab’s Mahia Peninsula launch site in New Zealand at 5:21 p.m. Eastern on 2020-10-28.
A Rocket Lab Electron rocket placed 10 satellites into orbit for two customers on 2020-10-28.
The secondary payload on the 2020-10-28 Rocket Lab launch was CE-SAT-2B, an imaging microsatellite developed by Canon Electronics as a technology demonstration.
Rocket Lab returned the Electron to flight on 2020-08-30 with the launch of a synthetic aperture radar satellite for Capella Space.
Rocket Lab launched its 15th Electron mission on 28 October 2020.
The 'In Focus' mission launched from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 on New Zealand’s Māhia Peninsula at 21:21 UTC on 28 October 2020.