Rocket Lab awarded $816M prime contract from U.S. Space Force

Rocket Lab (RKLB) USA, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Rocket Lab Corporation, announced it has been awarded a landmark prime contract by the U.S. Space Development Agency to design and manufacture 18 satellites for the Tracking Layer Tranche 3 program under the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture. The award is Rocket Lab’s largest single contract to date and underscores its growing reputation as a trusted prime in national security space. Under the $816M contract, Rocket Lab will deliver satellites equipped with advanced missile warning, tracking, and defense sensors to provide global, persistent detection and tracking of emerging missile threats, including hypersonic systems. The award includes a $806M base contract plus up to $10.45M in options. Each satellite will feature Rocket Lab’s next-generation Phoenix infrared sensor payload, a wide field-of-view solution designed to meet the evolving missile defense needs of national security space. To ensure mission resilience, the satellites will be equipped with Rocket Lab’s advanced StarLite space protection sensors, designed to safeguard the constellation against directed energy threats. Notably, StarLite sensors have also been adopted by other prime contractors developing TRKT3 satellites, further expanding Rocket Lab’s role in the program and unlocking additional contract value beyond its own satellite production. In addition to the $816M prime contract award value, as a leading merchant supplier into the other TRKT3 prime contractors, there are additional subsystem opportunities that could take the total capture value to approximately $1B for supplying items such as payloads, solar solutions, attitude determination and control components, software, and other solutions from our broad portfolio of capabilities.