Details revealed: Rocket Lab documentary and its new $818m US Govt contract

New Zealand’s own rocket launching start-up story is about to hit the big screen - as it proves its rising place in the space race by signing a decade-long US$515 million (NZ$818m) contract with the US Government.

WarnerBros. Discovery’s HBO is turning a book, featuring Rocket Lab and its founder and chief executive Peter Beck, into a documentary film, touted for release next year.

The book, When the Heavens Went on Sale: The Misfits and Geniuses Racing to Put Space Within Reach, authored by Bloomberg reporter Ashlee Vance, included internal details of Rocket Lab and Beck’s dedication to build one of the world’s most frequent rocket launching companies.

A Rocket Lab spokeswoman told the Herald Beck and Rocket Lab featured in the documentary alongside other space companies - likely Astra, Firefly and Planet Labs, which all feature in the book, and perhaps SpaceX, founded by Elon Musk who was the subject of Vance’s first biography.

Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck in the control room. Photo / Dean Purcell

Filming of Rocket Lab’s operations in New Zealand and the United States had mostly wrapped up, but a release date could not be confirmed, the spokeswoman said.

Vance announced the HBO “movie” would be released in 2024 on X (formerly Twitter) on Friday morning.

Vance spent five years researching Rocket Lab, California-based Astra, Texas-based Firefly Aerospace and San Francisco-based Planet Labs, for the book.

“[The book] travels through private company headquarters, labs, and top-secret launch locations around the world, including California, Texas, Alaska, New Zealand, Ukraine, India, and French Guiana,” the book’s synopsis on Amazon reads.

Record year for $RKLB

The documentary’s release comes at an exciting time for Rocket Lab’s growth and global status.

It just secured a US$515m contract with an undisclosed US Government customer to design, build and operate 18 space vehicles - according to a document Rocket Lab’s chief financial officer Adam Spice filed with the US Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) on December 21.

The value was made up of a US$489m (NZ$777m) base payment and US$26m of incentives and option payments.

“Work under the agreement will begin immediately with the delivery of space vehicles to the customer for launch slated for 2027, operation of the satellites through 2030, and an option to operate the satellites through 2023,” Spice said in the SEC filing.

The agreement allowed either party to terminate at any time, subject to conditions.

It launched a record 10 rockets in the 2023 calendar year, beating last year’s record of nine, despite an anomaly in one September launch causing a three-month hiatus.

It publicly claimed to be the second most frequently launched US rocket in 2023, behind SpaceX, for five consecutive years.

Its execution saw it ascend to the number two position in the Ars Technica rocket launching ranks, ahead of United Launch Alliance.

Ars Technica said of the anomaly: “This was the company’s fourth failure in 40 orbital launches. While not a terrible record, it’s not a great one, either.”

Rocket Lab planned to double its launch cadence next year targeting a new record of 22.

And it continues to build a new medium-lift rocket called Neutron that would allow it to carry more satellites to space.

In the calendar year it bought SailGP Technologies’ manufacturing complex in Warkworth, north of Auckland, acquiring 50 of its staff, and bought failed Virgin Orbit’s giant headquarters and manufacturing plant in Long Beach, California.

Rocket Lab posted revenue of US$67.6 million (NZ$114.4m) for the three months ending September, and a net loss of US$40.6m (NZ$64.6m).

Madison Reidy is the host of New Zealand’s only financial markets show Markets with Madison. She joined the Herald in 2022 after working in investment, and has covered business and economics for television and radio broadcasters.