It is not that common for government bodies to work with startup companies and when it comes to military level companies, then the whole thing will have a new level of complexity around them but a new startup company called Rocket Lab did successfully manage to break this cycle and sign a new contract with Darpa to be their partner in satellite launches.
Startup companies are usually a lot smaller than government bodies but there are some who can give them a run for their money and Rocket Lab is one of them. this startup had a wonderful year already and made a great deal with US government body in military planning called DARPA.
The funny thing is that this startup is not based in the USA and they are originally from Newzeland. this agreement is based on NASA satellite launch and sending some basic cargo and stuff to space. The main project is a payload for DARPA which consists of an experimental satellite. This satellite is designed to demonstrate a new kind of membrane reflect-array antenna and Rocket Lab is supposed to deliver it to space for DARPA and NASA of course.
Previously mentioned antenna is made from tissue-thin Kapton membranes. When it comes to the size, this satellite packs up tightly for launch because sending things to space is a little bit trickier than who we do it on earth. It has a diameter of 2.25 meters and the initial stage is sending it to low Earth orbit. After that, it will be open new doors in the realm of radio communications and thats why Rocket Lab is making history in both space exploration and startup collaboration with government bodies.
Rocket Lab founder and CEO is Peter Beck and he seems to be very happy about the current deal. He expresses the situation like this: “Rapid acquisition of small satellite launch capabilities is increasingly important to US Government organizations like DARPA. The ability to rapidly space-qualify new technology and deploy space-based assets with confidence on short notice is a service that didn’t exist for dedicated small satellites until now. We’re honored to provide Electron’s agile and flexible launch service to DARPA and we look forward to delivering the innovative R3D2 payload to orbit.”
So what do you think this deal will bring for the other startup companies in the future? will we see more and more of this kind of great deals or this will remain a rare case? share your point of view on this topic with us down below and if you have any feedback or suggestion then let us know about it as well by leaving a comment for us.
