Rocket Lab focuses on two missions within 24 hours – one to each location

Rocket Lab set a new speed record during launch, successfully completing two Electron missions in 24 hours.

The company added in a statement that this is also the first time any launch operator has completed a mission from each hemisphere during that time.

Rocket Lab, founded in New Zealand, maintains a launch site there and at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport in Virginia. The company cited its ability to launch from pads in the USA and New Zealand as a competitive advantage; when the Virginia pad becomes operational in 2022, Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck said it will enable customers to “enjoy unparalleled control over their launch program and orbital needs.”

Those direct orbital installations include access to polar and sun-synchronous orbits from the launch site in New Zealand, and intermediate orbits from Virginia. Rocket Lab also operates a suborbital version of the Electron, called the Hypersonic Accelerator Suborbital Test Electron (HASTE) from an American launch pad. HASTE is used as a testing ground for hypersonics and suborbital technology.

These recent launches include the launch of the HASTE suborbital from Virginia for an unnamed customer, and the launch of satellites by the French company Kinéis from Mahia Island, New Zealand.

The company has completed 14 launches so far this year, but there likely won’t be many more. In its latest earnings announcement, Rocket Lab estimated it will launch 15-18 rockets by 2024. Although Rocket Lab is best known for operating the small Electron rocket, which is second only to SpaceX’s Falcon 9 in terms of mission, most. of the company’s revenue actually comes from its Space Systems business, which includes the design and manufacture of spacecraft and the sale of satellite components. Of the $105 million in revenue the company earned in the third quarter of this year, for example, $21 million came from launch services and $84 million from the Space Systems division.

That estimate could change slightly when Rocket Lab brings its medium-lift rocket, the Neutron, online sometime next year. The company currently estimates launching that rocket once in 2025, three times in 2026, and five times in 2027.