Commercial launch service provider and aerospace manufacturer Rocket Lab was awarded a new $266 million contract for up to 18 suborbital missions for the United States Space Force. The contract, which was awarded by the U.S. Space Force Space Systems Command’s Rocket Systems Launch Program (RSLP), is the largest for the company to date.
The first launch is expected to take place no earlier than the end of 2026, with Rocket Lab slated to execute 12 launches, with up to six additional launches.
The “Space Coast” in Florida will also see competition, as the dozen launches will primarily take place at Rocket Lab’s new facility at the Pacific Spaceport Complex-Alaska (PSCA) in Kodiak, Alaska. The new site was established to complement Rocket Lab’s existing facilities at Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand, and Launch Complex 2 and Launch 3 in Virginia.
“Cadence, iteration, and relentless execution are essential to maturing America’s missile defense capabilities, and that’s exactly what we bring with launch leadership,” explained Sir Peter Beck, founder and CEO of Rocket Lab. “The size and scale of this contract reflects the Space Force’s confidence in our ability to meet their urgent national security demands with speed, responsiveness, and scale, and we’re proud to provide the high-frequency launch capacity required to keep the U.S. ahead of global threats.”
The $266 million launch contract is the U.S. Space Force’s largest launch contract award to date.
About Rocket Lab
Beck founded Rocket Lab in 2006 in Auckland, New Zealand. It launched its Ātea-1 sounding rocket, making Rocket Lab the first private company in the Southern Hemisphere to reach space.
It was reincorporated as a U.S. company, establishing its headquarters in Long Beach, California, but also maintaining significant operations in New Zealand.
Construction of Launch Complex 1 in Mahia, New Zealand began in 2015, with it becoming the world’s first private orbital launch facility. It opened its Launch Complex 2 at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport in Virginia in 2023.
Rocket Lab currently has a staff of approximately 2,600 employees globally, with around 700 based in New Zealand, and the rest working from its headquarters in Long Beach and from other U.S.-based locations.
North to Alaska
Although Rocket Lab will oversee the launches at the PSCA, beginning in the coming months, the facility was initially established in 1998 as the Kodiak Launch Complex, becoming the first Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)-licensed commercial spaceport not co-located on a federal military range. It is owned and operated by the state-owned Alaska Aerospace Corporation, which was founded seven years earlier to develop a commercial space industry.
The Narrow Cape on Kodiak Island proved to be a prime high-latitude location for polar and sun-synchronous orbits. It supported numerous suborbital and orbital launches between 1998 and 2014, primarily serving federal and commercial customers.
However, a launch failure in 2014 resulted in heavy damage to the facility’s infrastructure, leading to a two-year operational shutdown. During that time, the facility was officially renamed the Pacific Spaceport Complex – Alaska in April 2015. It underwent extensive repairs and upgrades, and the spaceport reopened in August 2016.
From its reopening until 2022, Alaska Aerospace secured major multi-year contracts exceeding $190 million combined with the U.S. Missile Defense Agency to support defense and interceptor tests, including international testing partnerships.
It is managed via a headquarters in Anchorage, and it continues to serve as one of the primary vertical launch sites within the United States, providing low-cost commercial and defense space access. PSCA employs roughly 50 permanent employees, but is expected to see a 20% increase in jobs with further expansion.
