Rocket Lab Brings Important Updates in the Third Quarter Results

The U.S.-based launch provider Rocket Lab had its third quarter financial results announcement on November 12, 2024. While the company has affirmed itself as a reliable space operator with its small-lift Electron rocket, the promising results accompany the known development effort made by Rocket Lab to develop a partially reusable medium-lift rocket, Neutron.

The detailed results highlighted a year-on-year growth of 55% with a $105 million revenue coming from small launch contracts and mainly from the space systems branch of the company.

In the official Q3 results press release for 2024, the company’s CEO Peter Beck highlighted the successes achieved with Electron missions and future developments. The update also cites the NASA study contract awarded to Rocket Lab, for an unprecedented Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission. As a part of the Rapid Mission Design Studies, Rocket Lab’s proposal could be used to update the current MSR program. Rocket Lab also completed the capsules for two upcoming Varda missions and cited the on-time delivery of the twin ESCAPADE spacecraft to NASA.

Electron’s two more launches by the end of the year will bring a total of 14 launches, with a further $55 million in announced launch contracts. Rocket Lab is currently the third most-launched small-lift rocket in the world. The company expects to reach a total revenue between $125-$135 million in the last quarter of this year.

Following a successful launch at the beginning of this month with the  “Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes” mission, the next one scheduled for November 20th will be a suborbital HASTE mission, the second one for Leidos, after the successful first launch in June 2023. The HASTE platform is Rocket Lab’s solution for companies wanting to perform high-altitude hypersonic tests.

A secretive contract with great potential

Rocket Lab also had several points to highlight, concerning its Neutron rocket, currently in advanced development. While work continues for a maiden launch in 2025, the company noted the Assembly, Integration, and Test (A.I.T.) facilities on Wallops Island, Virginia,  were completed on time. The Neutron Rocket will be a medium-lift vehicle, with a reusable first stage. It will transport up to 13 tons of payload to Low Earth Orbit (LEO), tailoring to defense and commercial applications, along with science missions.

From this quarter’s announcements comes great anticipation because an undisclosed customer signed an agreement for two Neutron launches. The customer is cited as an important commercial satellite operator. The missions will be launching from Launch Complex 3 at Wallops, the first in mid-2026, and the two satellites will be the first portion of a larger constellation. The importance of the agreement could cement Neutron as a valid alternative for medium-sized payloads to LEO, and the company states the agreement could evolve to the launch of the complete constellation in the following years.

Rocket Lab is also planning to develop its constellation of satellites, to be launched using Neutron. Peter Beck highlighted how Electron “changed the game” for smallsat launches and hypersonic tests with HASTE, and points at Neutron for having the same effect for constellations and defense launches, it being “strongly positioned to be that rocket that provides choice and value to the industry”.

More work on the Archimedes engines

This summer saw the first firing of Rocket Lab’s Archimedes engine, that will power the Neutron rocket to orbit. The engine, which features some innovative 3D-printed components, was test-fired on August 8th, 2024, at Rocket Lab’s test stand in the NASA Stennis facility.

The Archimedes engine will be an oxidizer-rich methalox engine providing the Neutron rocket with more than 6.600 MN of thrust at liftoff. The first stage will be powered by 9 engines, while the second stage, expendable, will have a vacuum-optimized single engine.

A new contract with the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory was announced along with the Q3 results. With a value of $8 million, the AFRL will be working closely with the Rocket Lab Archimedes design team, with the ultimate goal of developing a refined Digital Engineering model inspired by the work processes used in the Archimedes team. With a focus on the optimization of processes through digitalization, the AFRL aims to bring more efficiency to various U.S. Space Force programs.

Rocket Lab also highlighted how their Neutron rocket is also a likely choice for multiple Defense programs:  the Lane 1 phase of the National Security Space Launch program has been recently opened for proposals, and Neutron could qualify successfully for an indefinite delivery indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract of $5.6 billion. There’s also an Orbital Services Program OSP-4  IDIQ contract for $986 million, which the company could also take part in.