Rocket Lab

Rocket Lab is a US aerospace corporation with a New Zealand subsidiary. Rocket Lab's mission is to develop lightweight, cost-effective commercial rocket launch services. The Electron Program was founded on the premise that small payloads such as CubeSats require dedicated small launch vehicles and flexibility not currently offered by traditional rocket systems. Electron, Rocket Lab's lightweight launch vehicle, is designed to service the small satellite market with dedicated, high-frequency launch opportunities. Electron is capable of delivering payloads of 150 kg to a 500 km Sun-synchronous orbit.

The Electron test program is scheduled to begin in early 2017, with commercial flights commencing later in the year at a starting price of US$4.9 million.

Rocket Lab was founded in 2006 by CEO and CTO Peter Beck. Internet entrepreneur Mark Rocket was the seed investor and co-Director from 2007 to 2011. In 2009 Rocket Lab claimed it had become the first private company in the Southern Hemisphere to reach space with the Ātea-1 sounding rocket, a claim which was not supported with flight data as the rocket had no telemetry downlink and was not recovered.

In December 2010 Rocket Lab was awarded a U.S. government contract from the Operationally Responsive Space Office (ORS) to study a low cost space launcher to place nanosatellites into orbit.

Funding was obtained from Khosla Ventures in 2013, and Callaghan Innovation and Bessemer Venture Partners in 2014. In March 2017, the company announced that it had raised an additional US$75 million in a Series D equity round led by Data Collective with participation by Promus Ventures and several previous investors.

The first launch of the Ātea-1 (Māori for 'space') suborbital sounding rocket occurred in late 2009. The 6-metre (20 ft) long rocket weighing 60 kg was designed to carry a 2 kg payload to an altitude of 120 km. It was intended to carry scientific payloads or possibly personal items.