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’s production goal is to reduce Electron build time from one every 30 days to one per week.
Rocket Lab began pursuing recovery and reuse of the Electron first stage earlier in 2024 and added instrumentation on the 2024-06-29 Electron flight.
TriSept is working with Millennium Space Systems and Rocket Lab to obtain the necessary regulatory approvals from government agencies in the United States and New Zealand.
Lockheed Martin Ventures participated in Rocket Lab’s Series B funding round in 2015 as a strategic investment of undisclosed size while Rocket Lab was developing the Electron small launcher.
Lockheed Martin considered using Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket from a launch site in northern Scotland that the U.K. government will be developing.
Rocket Lab uses additive manufacturing to produce the Rutherford engine’s combustion chamber, injectors, and pumps.
Rocket Lab is building Launch Complex 2 at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island, Virginia, which includes a pad, an integration facility, and a mission control center.
Rocket Lab plans to produce 200 Rutherford engines over the next year at an expanded facility in Huntington Beach, California.
Rocket Lab’s Electron launched DARPA’s R3D2 satellite in March 2019.
Rocket Lab’s Electron launched three technology demonstration satellites for the U.S. Air Force in May 2019.
The 2019-06-29 launch was Rocket Lab’s third Electron mission of 2019.
Rocket Lab planned to move toward monthly Electron launches after the 2019-06-29 mission to provide a higher launch cadence.
Rocket Lab launched three experimental Air Force satellites to orbit on 2019-05-05 as the first of five missions planned for 2019 under the Rapid Agile Launch Initiative.
As of 2019-04-18, Rocket Lab had sent 25 satellites into orbit on four launches of its Electron rocket from the company’s private launch site in New Zealand.
Rocket Lab plans to complete construction of a second launch site on Wallops Island, Virginia by the end of the year.
Rocket Lab had a valuation in excess of $1,000,000,000 based on its latest funding round in November prior to the conference, making it a unicorn.
Rocket Lab plans to launch only one Photon at a time, with each Photon capable of carrying multiple payloads.
Rocket Lab produces the Rutherford engine that powers the Electron rocket at its Huntington Beach factory.
Rocket Lab will manufacture Photon at its Huntington Beach, California factory.
Three satellites will be launched to low Earth orbit from Māhia, New Zealand using Rocket Lab USA’s Electron rocket.