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 required a new FAA launch license for a late-February 2019 Electron launch because the mission would fly an entirely new trajectory and required a new safety analysis.
Construction of Rocket Lab’s second launch site at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia is underway to support a first launch from the new pad in September 2019.
Rocket Lab expects to reach a launch cadence of one Electron launch every two weeks by the end of 2019, subject to a possible midyear break for block upgrades to the Electron and launch facilities.
Rocket Lab will launch an experimental DARPA satellite on its Electron rocket from New Zealand in February 2019.
The February 2019 launch will be the first of 12 launches Rocket Lab expects to carry out in 2019.
Rocket Lab opened a factory in Auckland, New Zealand designed to support production of one Electron rocket per week.
Rocket Lab announced a $140,000,000 Series E funding round on 2018-11-15 to help support an increased launch rate.
NASA awarded Rocket Lab a contract for the launch in October 2015 through its Venture Class Launch Services program.
Rocket Lab performed its first commercial launch of the Electron rocket on 2018-11-10 after conducting two prior test flights.
Rocket Lab’s Electron is designed to launch 150 kg to a 500-kilometer orbit and can lift up to 225 kg maximum.
The Series E valuation exceeded Rocket Lab’s Series D valuation of more than $1,000,000,000.
Rocket Lab seeks to ramp up its Electron flight rate in 2019 and beyond.
Rocket Lab will build Launch Complex 2 at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island, Virginia.
Rocket Lab has authority to construct additional launch pads at Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand.
Rocket Lab has raised an additional $140,000,000 to fund expansion of its launch activities and research projects.
Rocket Lab has now raised more than $288,000,000 to date.
Rocket Lab raised $75,000,000 in a Series D round in March 2017.
The 2018-11-10 'It’s Business Time' mission was Rocket Lab’s first commercial flight of the Electron rocket after two test flights.
Rocket Lab closed a Series E funding round on 2018-11-15 led by Future Fund, an Australian sovereign wealth fund.
Rocket Lab’s next Electron mission is expected to take place in December and will carry a collection of cubesats from NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative under a contract awarded by NASA’s Venture Class Launch Services program in 2015.