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Data
Collective, a venture capital fund based in San Francisco, led
the round, with additional investment from Promus Ventures, an
undisclosed investor, and existing investors Bessemer Venture
Partners, Khosla Ventures and K1W1, said Rocket Lab founder and
chief executive Peter Beck.
The money will be used to expand manufacturing facilities in
California and New Zealand for Rocket Lab’s small launch
vehicle, known as Electron. The booster is designed to put
satellites weighing about 330 pounds (150 kg) into orbits a few
hundreds miles (km) above Earth.
The liquid-fueled Rocket Labs booster features 3-D-printed
engines and battery-operated electric motors. It is designed to
be manufactured at a rate of one per week and sell for about $5
million per flight, Beck said.
The first of three Electron test flights is expected within the
next few weeks from a newly built commercial spaceport in New
Zealand. Commercial flights are slated to follow in the second
half of the year.
The market for launching small satellites is expected to boom.
Companies such as the privately owned OneWeb and Space
Exploration Technologies have raised billions from investors to
develop satellite constellations for global internet and
broadband services. Some of the new systems are expected to
feature more than 1,000 satellites.
Filings with the Federal Communications Commission, which
handles radio spectrum allocation for non-federal users, show
“massive growth in the number of systems that have put their
marker down to say ‘We’re interested,’” said Carissa Bryce
Christensen, chief executive of Bryce Space and Technology, a
Washington D.C.-area consultancy.
If all the projects came to fruition, some 12,000 small
satellites would be launched in the next 10 years, Christensen
said. “Of course, nowhere near that is going to happen,” but the
number is an indication of the market’s potential, she added.
Rocket Lab is among about 30 companies and agencies worldwide
developing small satellite launchers. The company said in a
statement it has now received $148 million in funding and is
valued in excess of $1 billion.
Rocket Lab's customers include NASA, Planet and startups Spire
and Moon Express.
(Reporting by Irene Klotz; Editing by Jonathan Weber and Leslie
Adler)
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