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Rocket Lab set a new speed record for launch turnaround time, successfully executing two Electron missions in 24 hours.
The company added in a statement that this is also the first time any launch operator has completed a mission from each hemisphere within that time frame.
Rocket Lab, which was founded in New Zealand, maintains a launch pad there and at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport in Virginia. The company has cited its ability to launch from pads in the USA and New Zealand as a competitive advantage; when the Virginia pad became operational in 2022, Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck said it enabled customers to “enjoy unmatched control over their launch schedule and orbital requirements.”
Those precise orbital insertions include access to polar and sun-synchronous orbits from the launch site in New Zealand, and to mid-inclination orbits from Virginia. Rocket Lab also operates a suborbital version of Electron, called Hypersonic Accelerator Suborbital Test Electron (HASTE) from the American launch pad. HASTE is used as a testbed for hypersonics and suborbital technologies.
These most recent launches included a HASTE suborbital launch from Virginia for an unnamed customer, and the launch of a pair of satellites from the French company Kinéis from Mahia Island, New Zealand.
The company has completed 14 launches so far this year, but there likely won’t be too many more. In its most recent earnings announcement, Rocket Lab estimated it would launch the rocket 15-18 times in 2024. While Rocket Lab is best known for operating the small Electron rocket, which is second only to SpaceX’s Falcon 9 in terms of activity, the majority of the company’s revenue actually comes from its Space Systems business, which includes spacecraft design and manufacturing and the sale of satellite components. Of the $105 million in revenues the company earned in the third quarter of this year, for example, $21 million came from launch services and $84 million from the Space Systems segment.
That proportion could change slightly when Rocket Lab brings its medium-lift rocket, Neutron, online mid-next year. The company currently estimates launching that rocket once in 2025, three times in 2026, and five times in 2027.
Aria Alamalhodaei covers the space and defense industries at TechCrunch. Previously, she covered the public utilities and the power grid for California Energy Markets. You can also find her work at MIT’s Undark Magazine, The Verge, and Discover Magazine. She received an MA in art history from the Courtauld Institute of Art in London. Aria is based in Austin, Texas.
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