Rocket Lab downgrades guidance after scrubbing first US launch til January

The launch of the "Virginia is for Launch Lovers" mission will be the first from Rocket Lab's Launch Complext 2, which sits inside Nasa's Wallops Island facility. Photo / Supplied

Rocket Lab’s first launch from US soil has been scrubbed until the New Year - and the Nasdaq-listed firm has downgraded fourth-quarter guidance as a result.

Its revenue forecast for the three months to December 31 has been cut from $51 million to $54m to $46m to $47m.

After three postponements over four days, the Kiwi-American firm posted to Twitter, “Continued strong upper-level winds tomorrow have ruled out the final day of the launch window ... A new window is now scheduled to open in January.”

A more fulsome market filing Rocket Lab said:

The move of the planned launch window from December 2022 to early 2023 was driven by weather and the additional time that Nasa at Wallops and the Federal Aviation Administration required to complete essential regulatory documentation for launch.

“The delay in documentation left only two days in the originally scheduled 14-day launch window and both of those final remaining days were unsuitable for launch due to bad weather. The Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport within Nasa’s Wallops Flight Facility is now closed for launch activity for the remainder of December due to holiday airspace restrictions, preventing further launch attempts in 2022. Now scheduled for January, the mission will still take place from Virginia.”

Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck told the Herald in January 2019, “We’re currently building Launch Complex 2 at The Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport within NASA’s Wallops Flight facility in Virginia. Our first launch from this pad is planned for late 2019″.

In the event, the pandemic and certification delays at Nasa’s end, have seen the wait for the maiden launch drag on, and on, after LC2′s completion two years ago.

Once it finally achieves liftoff, the “Virginia is for Launch Lovers” mission will be Rocket Lab’s first from its new Launch Complex 2, which sits within Nasa’s Wallops Island facility in the US state of Virginia.

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.

The name of the mission, is a play on a local tourism slogan, “Virginia is for Lovers” and perhaps a nod to the state’s 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.

Rocket Lab shares closed down 4.2 per cent to US$3.90, well off its year-high of US$12.47, for a market cap of US$1.85b.

Read more about Rocket Lab’s US expansion and push to fill 145 vacant roles, here.