Rocket Lab USA, Inc. (Nasdaq: RKLB) (“Rocket Lab”) has announced the launch window for the company’s next Electron mission. This is a dedicated mission for BlackSky (NYSE: BKSY) through global launch services provider Spaceflight Inc., starting April 1, 2022 UTC.
This launch window opening in April rather than March is weather related and will result in this mission and its related revenue being recognized in Rocket Lab’s fiscal Q2 2022, versus in fiscal Q1 2022 as was previously anticipated at the time Rocket Lab provided Q1 2022 financial guidance in conjunction with its Q4 2021 preliminary earnings release on February 28, 2022. As a result, Rocket Lab is updating its expected Q1 2022 revenue outlook from the range of $42 million to $47 million that was previously provided on February 28, 2022, to approximately $40 million.
The “Without Mission A Beat” launch is scheduled to lift off from Launch Complex 1 Pad A carrying a pair of BlackSky rapid-revisit, high-resolution, Earth-imaging satellites to LEO, expanding BlackSky’s constellation to 14 satellites. Rocket Lab has delivered the majority of BlackSky’s constellation to orbit on Electron missions since 2019.
“Without Mission A Beat” will be Rocket Lab’s 25th Electron launch and will bring the total number of satellites launched by the company to 112. Rocket Lab will not be attempting to recover Electron for this mission.
Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck said, “We’re looking forward to again providing BlackSky and Spaceflight with another dedicated Electron mission that delivers the flexibility they need to meet the unique requirements of BlackSky’s capacity-on-demand constellation. We’re proud to continue our partnership with them and look forward to helping them grow their constellation with this next mission.”
