Source: Radio New Zealand
AFP / JIM WATSON
New Zealand-founded company Rocket Lab is well placed to benefit from the Trump administration’s planned “Golden Dome” space missile shield, according to its chief executive Sir Peter Beck.
It comes after it posted record revenue of US$200 million (NZ$336 million) in the first quarter, as demand for its launch vehicles surged.
The company, listed on the US-based Nasdaq, said it had signed 31 new launch contracts for its Electron and HASTE launch vehicles.
It said that it now had more than 70 contracted missions, with its backlog valued at US$2.2 billion (NZ$3.7 billion).
While revenue was up more than 63 percent on the same period a year earlier, the company still posted a net loss of about US$45m (NZ$75.6m).
During the quarter, the company said it had signed five new dedicated Neutron launch contracts with an undisclosed customer.
That comes after it signed a record US$190 million (NZ$319.2m) contract from the United States Department of War, formally the Department of Defence, for a series of hypersonic test flights using its HASTE launch vehicle.
Rocket Lab founder Peter Beck. Supplied / Rocket Lab
Sir Peter told an investor briefing that HASTE’s growth had left it well positioned for future US defence spending.
“HASTE’s strength has helped us to position us in the centre of America’s defence architecture for the next big wave of spending,” he said.
The Trump administration was planning to spend around US$175 million on a new space missile defence shield known as “Golden Dome”.
“We are already ingrained with spacecraft components and full satellite builds and when you add HASTE hypersonic rockets to test missile tracking and defence, that’s almost the entire spectrum of capabilities covered by Golden Dome,” Sir Peter said.
The first launch of the Neutron launch vehicle was expected later this year from a site in the United States.
Rocket Lab’s New Zealand launch site based on the Mahia Peninsula was used for the smaller Electron launch vehicle.
The company also completed the acquisition of space robotics company Motiv Space Systems during the quarter. It said this would add Mars-proven robotics capability to Rocket Lab, for advanced planetary and national security missions.
Looking ahead the company said it expected revenue to be even higher in the second quarter, at between US$225m (NZ$378m) and US$240m (NZ$403.2m).
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand