Rocket Lab almost doubles loss, nabs another Nasa mission

American-Kiwi company Rocket Lab has nearly doubled its quarterly net loss to US$45.6 million ($71.9m) as it spends millions of dollars developing a bigger rocket to launch from the United States next year.

But the California-based and New Zealand-founded company is seeing more government and commercial customers book space on its rockets to launch this year, after successfully blasting off three of its small Electron rockets in the first three months of 2023, from the Māhia Peninsula near Gisborne and Virginia on the east coast of the United States.

Customer demand from the likes of Nasa has helped push its revenue up 35 per cent to US$54.9m in the three months to March, with forecast revenue for this quarter to come in between US$60m and US$63m.

“At a time when we’re starting to see a contraction of available small rockets, we’re also seeing an increase in launch bookings for Electron launches in 2023 and beyond, from new and returning customers across government and commercial sectors,” Rocket Lab founder Peter Beck said in a written statement outlining its result.

Rocket Lab's experiencing an increase in demand from government and commercial customers who want to launch satellites into space on its Electron rocket.

It announced on Wednesday morning it had nabbed another Nasa mission, called the Starling mission, which involved launching four small satellites from New Zealand later this year, and had also secured a multi-mission contract with San Francisco earth observation company Capella Space.

That increased revenue will be welcome as it spends millions more developing a larger rocket called Neutron - research and development spend blew out 77 per cent compared with the same period last year, to US$23.9m.

That deepened its net loss to US$45.6m, from US$26.7m a year ago.

“The development of our larger rocket Neutron is continuing at pace with launch and testing facilities expanded, engine hardware being printed at our headquarters in Long Beach, and vehicle hardware in production for upcoming structural tests throughout the year that we expect will keep the programme on track,” Beck said.

Neutron would launch exclusively from its new launch site at the Virginia Spaceport Authority’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, aka Rocket Lab Launch Complex 2.

An artist's impression of Rocket Lab's Neutron assembly and launch facility in Virginia, under construction.

In January, Rocket Lab launched its first Electron rocket from the American site, deploying three satellites for a geospatial analytics provider HawkEye 360.

That launch, named the “Virginia is for Launch Lovers” mission, was four years delayed, with the initial plan in 2019 derailed by Covid-19, FAA documentation and weather problems.

Having launch pads in New Zealand and America allowed Rocket Lab to increase its launch frequency, with it now sending rockets into space just one week apart.

Beck also highlighted the milestones achieved in its support of Nasa’s Escapade mission to Mars.