No slowing down in a rather bare market
This has not been the year for SmallSat launchers, with only Rocket Lab taking the lead on launching so far. We are also going through a rough patch financially with Virgin Orbit’s bankruptcy and continued missed goals from other companies putting a damper on growth.
However, Rocket Lab is thriving with good revenue from both its launch and space operations departments. The company announced it made $19.6 million in Q1 2023 from its Electron launches and expects to bring in $23 million in Q2 spread across three launches. The first of those launches took place earlier in the week and was for NASA’s TROPICS constellation.
The company is also expanding and maturing its options. It recently ditched helicopter recovery of its Electron boosters and has gone instead with fishing them out of the ocean. While this seems counter-intuitive, it’s cheaper and more reliable. Rocket Lab expects to use its first flight-proven Rutherford engine on an Electron launch by the end of the year.
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A new option will be coming to Rocket Lab’s launch department later that year, and that will be called HASTE or Hypersonic Accelerator Suborbital Test Electron. A variant of the Electron rocket, it will serve as a hypersonic test bed for governments and researchers to meet that growing niche. Of course, this also comes with the continued development of the company’s Neutron rocket, which will attempt to directly compete with SpaceX’s medium lifting capabilities.
Rocket Lab’s 15 launch goal
During Tuesday’s earning call, Rocket Lab announced a goal to reach 15 Electron launches this year. This would be its biggest year yet, and the company is well on its way to meeting that goal. In 2022, Rocket Lab launched nine Electrons, so it was obvious that the company would want to reach double digits this year.
And for next year, Rocket Lab’s CFO, Adam Spice, stated the company wants to launch a total of 20 Electron with the help of HASTE coming online. So it sounds like between production increases and reusability to Electron, then the ability to launch HASTE quickly, Rocket Lab launches should become much more common.
This rate would put Electron into one of the most flying rockets in the world with no sign of slowing down. Rocket Lab has already surpassed ULA and Arianespace, with the only ones on the list above it being Russia, China, then SpaceX.
