How Rocket Lab Is Becoming A Bigger Player In The Space Industry
Rocket Lab has been an exciting company to keep up with over the past few years. During this time they have continued to launch Electron, began work on Neutron and its facilities, and much more. While both these launch vehicles are very important to Rocket Lab’s overall success and future, they have much bigger things planned.
This mainly includes the overall goal of becoming a one stop shop within the space industry. Through the acquisition of different companies including SolAero, Sinclair Interplanetary, ASI, etc., we are starting to see Rocket Lab involved in more and more missions around the globe. In the last few weeks alone the company has shared a bunch of new opportunities thanks to these additions.
This includes robotic space exploration, and separation systems, not to mention Rocket Lab launches missions providing both the launch service, and various components to the satellite. All of which working toward the greater goal of becoming much more than just a launch provider. Here I will go more in-depth into Rocket Lab’s future plan, its valuable acquisitions, recent updates and opportunities, and more.
Unique Opportunities
While Rocket Lab has only been acquiring different companies for a few years now, they have already played a major role in a lot of different missions. To put this in perspective, during the company’s recent investor day presentation, they highlighted that more than 38% of addressable launches in 2021 globally featured technology created by companies that are now part of Rocket Lab. Some examples include the James Webb Space Telescope, OneWeb Constellation, Mars Ingenutiy Helicopter, and much more. All apart of Rocket Lab’s Vertical Integration Acquisition Strategy. The idea being, these acquisitions, combined with their organically developed solutions, enables Rocket Lab to offer some of the most efficient and optimized spacecraft solutions in the industry.
Recently, the company highlighted some more opportunities and missions using this hardware and strategy. For example, earlier this month on the 14th Rocket Lab tweeted saying, “Rocket Lab will power the next generation of robotic space explorers. We’re thrilled to confirm our IMM solar cells were selected for @NASA’s CADRE robots that will explore the Moon’s most hard-to-reach places & communicate never-before-seen data to Earth.” Specifically, the solar panels will use Rocket Lab’s inverted metamorphic multi-junction (IMM) solar cells that are more efficient and lighter weight than standard multi-junction space solar cells and provide the exact capabilities needed for the program. The IMM cells were developed by SolAero Technologies Inc, a leading space solar power company acquired by Rocket Lab early this year. IMM solar cells are a superior type of space-grade solar cell, providing best-in-class efficiency with 40% lower mass than typical space-grade solar cells. IMM is also powering General Atomics’ GAzelle spacecraft, which Rocket Lab launched as part of its 31st Electron mission earlier this month.
Next, only three days ago on the 20th, the company tweeted mentioning, “Our separation systems have successfully deployed spacecraft on every mission they’ve been part of including CAPSTONE, Mandrake II, DART, and more. The Advanced Lightbands are the next-gen of vehicle separation system and have the shortest integration time in the industry. This spacecraft hardware is thanks to the acquisition of PCS or Planetary Systems Corp which has delivered hundreds of satellite separation systems with 100% mission success for over 20 years. To further stress the importance of these various space systems offered by Rocket Lab, we can take a closer look at some of the numbers related to this hardware. The company reported that it has been a record year for space systems. 66% of Rocket Lab’s total Q2’2022 revenue was from space systems, creating cash flow stability and diversity and off-setting the natural lumpiness of launch revenue. They also pointed out that all component hardware companies acquired by Rocket Lab have had record sales and production rates for 2022 YTD. Altogether, this created a total space systems backlog as of Q2, 2022 of just under $400 million.
Rocket Lab Acquisitions
Now that we know more about Rocket Lab’s ambitious future goal and some of the numbers supporting it, we can take a closer look at the four main recent acquisitions responsible for this success. Starting with the earliest, in April 2020, Rocket Lab closed the transaction to acquire Sinclair Interplanetary. This acquisition strengthened the satellite division of Rocket Lab, which produces the Photon spacecraft line. Sinclair Interplanetary products have become key features of Rocket Lab’s Photon satellite platforms designed for low Earth orbit, lunar, and interplanetary small satellite missions. Not long after, Rocket Lab dedicated resources to grow Sinclair’s already strong merchant spacecraft components business. The acquisition enabled Sinclair Interplanetary to tap into Rocket Lab’s resources, scale, manufacturing capability, and innovative technologies to make world-leading satellite hardware accessible to more customers. Both companies have built leading space businesses with consistent strong revenue growth and together, Rocket Lab and Sinclair Interplanetary can provide the small satellite industry with optimized spacecraft solutions and cohesive launch services to make space easy. At the time of the announcement, CEO of Rocket Lab Peter Beck pointed out, “When we talk to small satellite operators across the board their challenges are clear: They need to get on orbit faster; they need proven and reliable hardware; and they need the ability to focus on their core business, rather than spending years tied up in hardware development. Rocket Lab and Sinclair Interplanetary are uniquely suited to solve these challenges and make space easy for our customers,”.
Next, just over a year ago in October 2021, Rocket Lab announced it had completed the acquisition of Advanced Solutions, Inc. (ASI), a Colorado-based aerospace engineering firm delivering mission proven space software, mission simulation and test systems, and Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GNC) solutions. ASI’s industry-leading products strengthened Rocket Lab’s Space Systems portfolio, which encompasses the Photon spacecraft line and a growing suite of spacecraft hardware solutions, including those brought to the portfolio through the acquisition of Sinclair Interplanetary. “Both Rocket Lab and ASI have built leading space businesses with mission proven technology and have a shared vision of making it easier to get to space and do incredible things there, so we’re excited to welcome ASI aboard to further enhance our space systems portfolio and deliver enhanced end-to-end space solutions,” said Peter Beck. “The ASI team revolutionized flight software and have enabled some of the most significant space exploration missions. For more than 20 years they have been delivering industry-first, off-the-shelf spacecraft flight software products that enable cost-effective and highly capable constellation and interplanetary missions. By joining forces, we believe it will have a transformative effect on the way spacecraft are designed, built, tested, launched, and operated, further unlocking space’s potential.”
While exciting, just months later in December Rocket Lab announced its newest acquisition of Planetary Systems Corporation (PSC). A trusted leader in separation systems and satellite dispensers across the space industry, PSC’s flight-proven, cost-effective, and lightweight hardware streamlines the process of attaching satellites to rockets and releasing them in space while ensuring they’re protected during the journey to orbit. As partially mentioned prior, PSC’s products to date have a 100% mission success heritage across more than 100 missions launched with American launch providers including Rocket Lab, SpaceX, United Launch Alliance, Northrop Grumman, and many more. PSC’s products have already become key offerings in Rocket Lab’s vertically-integrated Space Systems division alongside its own in-house manufactured and operated Photon spacecraft line, Maxwell satellite dispensers, satellite components, and mission flight software by ASI. A common theme of these acquisitions that is very important has to do with resources. In this case, the deal also enabled PSC to make use of Rocket Lab’s resources and manufacturing capability to grow their already-strong commercial hardware trade and continue serving their existing satellite customers launching spacecraft on other launch vehicles.
Finally, earlier this year, Rocket Lab announced it had closed the previously-announced transaction to acquire SolAero Holdings, Inc. (SolAero), a premier supplier of space solar power products and precision aerospace structures for the global aerospace market. As one of only two companies producing high-efficiency, space-grade solar cells in the United States, SolAero’s space solar cells are among the highest performing in the world and support civil space exploration, science, defense and intelligence, and commercial markets. In combining with Rocket Lab, SolAero also tapped into the Company’s resources and manufacturing capability to boost high-volume production, making high-performing space power technologies available at scale.
Conclusion
Rocket Lab is working on becoming much more than just a launch provider within the industry. After only a few years of acquiring different companies, it has already become a main source of income in addition to launch. As time goes on we will likely see more acquisitions and work to increase what Rocket Lab has to offer. We will have to wait and see how it progresses and the impact it has on the space industry.