About the Company

Rocket Lab USA, Inc. is a publicly traded aerospace manufacturer and launch service provider that operates and launches lightweight Electron orbital rockets used to provide dedicated launch services for small satellites as well as a suborbital variant of Electron called HASTE (Hypersonic Accelerator Suborbital Test Electron). The company plans to build a larger Neutron rocket as early as 2025. Electron rockets have launched to orbit 46 times from either Rocket Lab's Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand or at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport in Wallops Island, Virginia, United States. Rocket Lab has launched one sub-orbital HASTE rocket to date from Wallops Island, Virginia. 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. The company was founded in New Zealand in 2006. By 2009, the successful launch of Ātea-1 made the organization the first private company in the Southern Hemisphere to reach space. The company established headquarters in California, US in 2013 and developed the expendable Electron rocket. The first launch of the rocket took place in May 2017. In August 2021, the company became a public company, listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange through a SPAC merger. In May 2022, after four years of development, the Electron booster attempted recovery by a helicopter.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.In August 2020 the company launched its first in-house designed and built satellite, Photon. The company also builds and operates satellites for the Space Development Agency, 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. The company's participation drew controversy in New Zealand, 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. The Union of Concerned Scientists warns SDA will escalate global tensions and called the project "fundamentally destabilizing". Rocket Lab has acquired four companies to expand its space systems offering including Sinclair Interplanetary in April 2020, Advanced Solutions Inc. in December 2021, SolAero Holdings Inc in January 2022, and Planetary Systems Corporation in December 2021. As of December 2023, the company had approximately 1,650 full time permanent employees globally. Approximately 700 of these employees are based in New Zealand with the remainder in the United States. The acquisition of SolAero added 425 staff members in the United States in January 2022. Two attempts have been made to recover an Electron booster by helicopter. In addition, six attempts have been made at soft water recovery. As of 2022, the company is developing the bigger Neutron reusable unibody rocket; multiple spacecraft buses, and rocket engines: Rutherford, Curie, HyperCurie, and Archimedes.In mid 2024, the company entered the engine test phase in Neutron’s development process.

Sector

Manufacturing

Industry

Guided Missiles & Space Vehicles & Parts

Employees

812

Exchange

Nasdaq