Rocket Lab Wins Contract to Construct Military Satellites for Space Development Agency

Rocket Lab has been awarded $515 million to build 18 data transport satellites by the Space Development Agency. Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, who received awards in August, join them with the same number of satellites each. The SDA’s Proliferated Warfigher Space Architecture is a fleet of small satellites operating in low Earth orbit about 1,200 miles above the planet’s surface. This will be Rocket Lab’s first prime satellite development contract, and they plan to build the satellites at their Long Beach, California manufacturing complex. The company will produce the subsystems for the 18 spacecraft in-house, including start trackers, solar panels, flight software, and other components. The agency expects to launch the 72 transport satellites built by Lockheed and Northrop in 2026 and the remaining Rocket Lab spacecraft in 2027.
Courtney Albon is C4ISRNET’s space and emerging technology reporter.