Rocket Lab USA, Inc. is a publicly traded aerospace manufacturer and launch service provider that operates and launches lightweight Electron orbital rockets used to provide dedicated launch services for small satellites as well as a suborbital variant of Electron called HASTE. The company plans to build a larger Neutron rocket as early as 2025. Electron rockets have launched to orbit 46 times from either Rocket Lab's Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand or at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport in Wallops Island, Virginia, United States. Rocket Lab has launched one sub-orbital HASTE rocket to date from Wallops Island, Virginia. In addition to the Electron, Neutron, and HASTE launch vehicles, Rocket Lab manufactures and operates spacecraft and is a supplier of satellite components including star trackers, reaction wheels, solar cells and arrays, satellite radios, separation systems, as well as flight and ground software.
Peter Beck and Dava Newman posing in front of Rocket Lab's sounding rockets
Electron launching from Launch Site 1, 2020
Payload preparation inside a Rocket Lab facility at Huntington Beach, California
Electron is a two-stage, partially reusable orbital launch vehicle developed by Rocket Lab, an American aerospace company with a wholly owned New Zealand subsidiary. Electron was developed to service the commercial small satellite launch market. As of May 2024, it’s the third most launched small-lift launch vehicle in history. Its Rutherford engines are the first electric-pump-fed engine to power an orbital-class rocket. Electron is often flown with a kickstage or Rocket Lab's Photon spacecraft. Although the rocket was designed to be expendable, Rocket Lab has recovered the first stage twice and is working towards the capability of reusing the booster. The Flight 26 (F26) booster has featured the first helicopter catch recovery attempt.
Electron launching TROPICS in 2023
The Māhia launch site under construction in 2016
A National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) payload was successfully launched aboard a Rocket Lab Electron rocket from Launch Complex-1