Rocket Lab pad team with CEO Peter Beck (centre) at Launch Complex 2 in Virginia ahead of the Kiwi-American' firm's first launch from US soil.
Rocket Lab is counting down to its first launch from US soil.
Subject to no further delays, one of the Kiwi-American firm’s Electron rockets will lift off from Launch Complex 2, which sits within Nasa’s Wallops Island facility in Virginia, between 6pm and 8pm on Sunday local time, or 12pm to 2pm Monday NZT. (UPDATE: High winds saw it scrubbed until tomorrow.)
The name of the mission, “Virginia is for Launch Lovers” is a play on the state’s tourism slogan, “Virginia is for Lovers” and perhaps a nod to its US$45 million ($70m) in grants toward Rocket Lab’s assembly and launch centre for its much larger Neutron rocket, due in 2024 and will launch exclusively from the US.
The much narrower launch window - at Launch Complex 1 at Mahia, it’s 10 days - reflects the demands of the new location.
The eastern seaboard of the US has some of the busiest airspace and sea lanes in the world. That also means when Nasa and Defence clients aren’t involved, New Zealand will be the easier launch option for many clients.
It will be the first of three launches involving 15 satellites for HawkEye 360, a maker of radio-frequency “geo-analytics” tracking services for military, maritime and border security clients.
Between its successful lunar mission for Nasa, not-so-successful attempts at helicopter snatches and other projects, 2022 has been Rocket Lab’s busiest year.
The year 2023 will be even busier, with four big US military contracts and its research mission to Venus - a Beck passion project - among the items on its packed agenda.
That means Rocket Lab’s relentless hiring drive continues.
“We’re at just over 1500 people globally, with slightly over half in the US,” says communications director Morgan Bailey.
Many tech companies, especially in the US, have recently flipped from hiring to firing.
“Hiring continues to be a challenge for us and the labour market is tight globally, but with headcounts changing in industries that cross over with ours, we are seeing more talent becoming available in areas like software development and space systems,” Bailey says.
The locations of Rocket Lab’s 145 open roles provide something of a map of its recent expansion.
Rocket Lab is after four ground staff today, but will hire at least 250 for its Neutron assembly, mission control and launch centre currently under construction.
While the state government has kicked in that aforementioned US$45m, and the US Air Force’s Space Force wing has chipped in US$24m toward the new rocket’s development, it’s not all about the subsidies.
Founder and CEO Peter Beck says Nasa and defence clients wanted launches from US soil.
Co-habiting within Nasa facilities makes logistical sense. And partly it’s just because NZ lacks the industrial oomph.
Beck told the Herald earlier: “To give you a sense of the scale, if we took all the liquid oxygen that’s produced in New Zealand, we’d only fill half the tank, let alone all the other kinds of logistics that are associated with these very, very, large launch vehicles.”
While the lovers’ state is getting that sexy Neutron action, Rocket Lab recently expanded its Mt Wellington facility to include a factory making flywheels - a key satellite component, and a key part of its strategy to earn more and more of its revenue from space systems.
R&D work on Neutron is also been done at the Auckland facility, which has now doubled in size since 2018 as the company has gobbled up surrounding buildings.
Rocket Lab has also been expanding on the East Coast, doubling Launch Complex 1′s capacity with the addition of Pad B earlier this year. It’s currently looking to hire electricians for the location, if you’re a tradie after a change of pace.
A Rocket Lab testing facility in Maramarua, Waikato, is looking for an inventory assistant. A rare opportunity for someone drawn by both the wonder of outer space and the Red Fox Tavern.
The Los Angeles exurb of Long Beach is Rocket Lab’s corporate headquarters, and where it makes the Rutherford engines for the Electron rockets that are assembled in Auckland.
If you’re after an OE opportunity, this probably isn’t it. To conform to US Government space technology regulations, an applicant must be a US citizen, or get special authorisation from the Department of State.
The home of SolAero, a maker of solar panels that power satellites.
Earlier this year, as US$80m deal closed, the New Mexico firm (staff: 445) became the largest in a string of four takeovers of space systems makers as Rocket Lab spent chunks of the US$551m it raised with its Nasdaq listing.
SolAero already had marquee projects in its pipeline, including the panels that power Nasa’s James Webb Space Telescope.
Under its new ownership, it’s won a contract to supply radiation-hardened solar cells to power satellites for a global missile warning system that will be bought by Lockheed Martin for the US Space Force.
Home of 1 million square foot Rocket Lab engine testing facility for its Neutron rocket, leased from Nasa.
It sits inside the US space agency’s Stennis Space Centre. US Senator Roger Wicker said, “Rocket Lab will bring quality jobs and technology to Mississippi for years to come” as the lease was announced in September.
Rocket Lab - which already has substantial US Government business is, like all players in the industry, jostling for more.
Open Secrets says the Kiwi-American company spent US$250,000 on lobbying in 2021 (chump change, by American standards) and is on track to more than double that this year.
Home of another one of Rocket Lab’s major acquisitions, Advances Solutions Inc (ASI), a maker of mission control systems that it bought for US$40m last year.
In February this year, Rocket Lab kicked off a project to double ASI’s staff to 120, and increase its Littleton facility from 15,000 square feet to 55,000 square feet.
The headquarters of Planetary Systems Corporation (PCS), a maker of spacecraft separation systems that Rocket Lab bought for US$42m.
It helped Rocket Lab win a contract with Lockheed Martin that involves a new Department of Defence satellite communications network that will, in Rocket Lab’s words, “provide assured, resilient, low-latency military data and connectivity worldwide to the full range of warfighter platforms”.
It sounds very Tom Clancy, and much of it probably is, but one of the roles is for an accountant.
Home of Sinclair Interplantarey, a satellite systems maker that Rocket Lab bought in 2020.
This one’s for a software team lead. Beyond tech smarts, the successful candidate you’ll need to be familiar with the Agile philosophy, including “Scrum Management”.
Agile is not everyone’s cup of tea, and Beck has a reputation as a hard-driving boss (”You don’t go to Mars working eight to five,” he told the Herald last year as accounts of “silly hours” and “rage-quitting” culminated in a $100,000 ERA payout).
On the upside, many of the open roles include stock as part of the compensation.
Earlier staff equity grants saw more than 100 past and present Rocket Lab employees become millionaires, at least on paper, when the firm listed on the Nasdaq in August 2021, while more than 150 had shares worth at least $500,000.
Not a bad perk, thought it was better last August. At Friday’s closing price of US$4.07 (for a US$1.9b market cap), Rocket Lab shares were down just under 60 per cent from their listing price.
The mānuka honey company has cut staff by around 70 to save money and reduce debt.