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The Space Development Agency is the mystery customer behindRocket Lab ’s up - to $ 515 million , 18 - satellite order declare in tardy December , the two firm announced today .
In a regulative filing from December 21 , Rocket Lab said it would “ plan , industry , deliver and operate 18 outer space vehicle ” for an unknown U.S. government customer . In a statement today , the SDA said that the flock for the 18 satellite is for a portion of the SDA ’s vast meshwork of military satellites known as Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture ( PWSA ) .
The contract is for a stand amount of $ 489 million with additional opportunities worth $ 26 million .
The SDA has already issued billions in contract bridge for PWSA . This picky funding is for a portion known as the Tranche 2 Transport Layer , and a variant promise Beta . The SDA has already awarded declaration for 72 T2TL Beta planet , for a total value of $ 1.5 billion , to Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin .
Under the contract , Rocket Lab will deliver and operate a image constellation in two orbital planes of nine satellite each . The artificial satellite are scheduled to set up no afterwards than July 2027 . Rocket Lab will not be cater the communication payload , and troupe administrator refuse to name that provider during a press release Monday .
“ We welcome Rocket Lab as the newest member of Team SDA and our third performing artist on the T2TL- Beta computer programme , ” say Derek Tournear , SDA director . “ Their survival as a new prize and bus provider demonstrates SDA ’s loyalty to our foreign mission , which includes development of a growing , innovative marketplace necessary to sustain SDA ’s proliferated architecture on two - year volute . ”
The unexampled award is the largest in the caller ’s history . The bulk of the work will be carried out in the next three years , and Rocket Lab will lock the satellites through 2030 , with an choice to draw out functioning through 2033 . The planet will be build at the companionship ’s spacecraft evolution and manufacture complex in Long Beach , California , and bring the total figure of space vehicle under reserve to 40 .
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Rocket Lab is leveraging its vertically integrated supply chain , with the fellowship not only build the satellites but also using much of its own subcomponents , include solar panels , star trackers , reaction bicycle and avionics , CEO Peter Beck said during the pressure group discussion ,
rocket salad research laboratory CTO Adam Spice touched on this specifically during the press release : “ This contract is the culmination of a paying attention and deliberate investment in our space systems business , ” he said . “ It ’s why we either develop primal space technologies or invest in them organically , as a means to deliver industry - conduct timber carrying into action and schedule . ”
He summate that the company is “ certainly not stopping at genus Beta ” and that Rocket Lab will continue to make proposals on other initiatives .
