Rocket Lab gets into satellite-building business

Tuesday, 9 April 2019

Rocket Lab says its turnkey service will help customers get set up in space faster.

Rocket Lab is expanding from putting satellites into space into building them.

The company is offering to manufacture what is in effect the shell of a satellite, with the propulsion system needed to position the spacecraft in space and the equipment to manage communications.

Customers can then put their own electronics inside that shell or, if they need more space, attach their payload to it.

Rocket Lab is marketing its Photon satellites as a 'turnkey' option for customers who don't have the time or expertise to build their own satellite vehicles.

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The Photon is a modified version of the final 'kickstage' of its Electron rocket.

That kickstage would normally position one or more small satellites into space, before separating after the final deployment and then dropping back into the atmosphere to burn up.

But acting as the craft for a satellite it would instead stay in space for up to five years.

'Small satellite operators want to focus on providing data or services from space, but building satellite hardware is a significant barrier to achieving this,' chief executive Peter Beck said.

'The time, resources and expertise required to build hardware can draw small satellite operators away from their core purpose, delaying their path to orbit and revenue.'

Photon would let customers focus on 'their payload and mission', he said. 'We look after the rest.'

The service could cut the time from customers ordering a satellite to putting it in space to four months, he said.

Spokeswoman Morgan Bailey said some components for the Photon vehicles would come from New Zealand 'but the majority of the Photon manufacturing will take place at Rocket Lab HQ in Huntington Beach' in the US.

Rocket hopes to launch its first Photon by the end of year to show off its capabilities, with commercial launches following next year.