The “Ice AIS Baby” mission lifted-off from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 in Mahia 4:55pm yesterday, successfully deploying five satellites to a 643km low Earth orbit for French Internet-of-Things constellation operator Kinéis.
The mission was Rocket Lab’s 14th of 2024 and 56th Electron launch overall. Rocket Lab’s previous annual record was 10 missions in 2023.
The launch took place just 21 hours and 55 minutes after Rocket Lab successfully completed its 55th mission from Launch Complex 2 in Virginia, setting a new company record for fastest turnaround between launches.
“At the customer’s request, we have not shared details of this mission yet but hope to share them in the coming days,” Rocket Lab comms VP Morgan Connaughton said.
While Rocket Lab is the only serious competitor to SpaceX, in terms of launch frequency, Musk’s firm is still streets ahead.
It has staged 414 launches of its larger Falcon 9 rocket overall, and is on track for 148 launches this year, with a one hour and five minutes record between mission as it launches from pads in California, Texas and Florida.
Nevertheless, Rocket Lab’s two launches within 24 hours were from two pads in two different hemispheres, believed to be a world first, Connaughton said.
The Chips and Science Act was signed into law by President Joe Biden two years ago, providing US$56b in grants to boost domestic US production of semiconductors (silicon chips).
The AI boom has compounded the global chip shortage that began in the pandemic.
Boosting local production, and research, was seen by the outgoing President as a matter of US economic and national security.
Rocket Lab’s angle is radiation-hardened semiconductor systems for use in spacecraft – specifically, the solar panels made by its plant in Albuquerque, New Mexico – where it bought solar cell maker SolAero for US$80m in 2022.
Rocket Lab first announced its US$23.9m in Chips Act funding in June, but at the time the grant was contingent on due diligence.
The Chips Act money will go toward doubling Rocket Lab’s production of radiation-hardened solar cells, which the firm described in a June market filing as “important components for national defence and security satellites”.
Additionally, New Mexico’s state government has committed US$25.5m in financial assistance and incentives to help the expansion, which it says will create 100 new high-paying jobs.
“That chip deal is so bad,” Trump said during a nearly three-hour episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience” late in his campaign.
“You didn’t have to put up 10 cents. You tariff it so high that they will come and build their chip companies for nothing.”
In Rocket Lab’s case, Beck has pursued a strategy of making as many components in-house as possible.
His firm’s solar cells – deemed semiconductor technology under the Chips Act – are designed and manufactured in New Mexico, with no option for transplanted Asian manufacturing encouraged by tariffs.
In the Kiwi-American firm’s case, it has been more a case of various states wooing it with tax breaks and grants as it divides its operations between California, Maryland, New Mexico, Mississippi and Virginia.
The New York Times has reported that Musk, a major Trump donor and close advisor to the President-elect, is pushing for SpaceX staff to be appointed to key positions at the Department of Defense – a key SpaceX (and Rocket Lab) customer.
But a post-election stock market boom has lifted all boats, including Rocket Lab’s.
Some pundits also see the Kiwi-American firm benefiting from a general Musk push to privatise the space industry.
Chris Keall is an Auckland-based member of the Herald’s business team. He joined the Herald in 2018 and is the technology editor and a senior business writer.
