Rocket Lab has secured a $515 million Pentagon contract to build 18 data-transport satellites as part of the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture. The company will build the satellites and subsystems in Long Beach, California and integrate a payload supplied by an unnamed company. Rocket Lab’s Tranche 2 satellites, part of the planned network of military satellites, will launch by July 2027. This major contract firmly establishes Rocket Lab as a leading satellite prime contractor for the Department of Defense.
In addition to the military-satellite market, Rocket Lab is also a dominant player in the space launch market. The company is three years into developing a reusable medium-lift rocket called Neutron and aims to pitch it for the Pentagon’s next launch competition. Beck said they will “certainly” put Neutron forward as a potential launch provider for the SDA satellites. This contract is a “generational growth opportunity” for Rocket Lab and “firmly puts us in the same peer group as much larger, more established government primes,” Spice said.
