Rocket Lab will design, produce and deliver 18 satellites to a U.S. government agency under a contract valued at approximately $515 million, SpaceNews reported Saturday.
The company disclosed the contract in a Dec. 21 regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission and sources say the government customer is likely the Space Development Agency, which is building a constellation of military satellites in low Earth orbit called the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture.
PWSA includes 90 Transport Layer Tranche 2 Beta satellites.
In August, Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) and Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC) secured $1.5 billion in prototype agreements from SDA to develop and operate 72 Beta satellites for the second tranche of the proliferated architecture’s transport layer.
At a Dec. 7 event, Derek Tournear, director of SDA and a previous Wash100 Award winner, noted that the agency was planning to procure another 18 Beta spacecraft and was in talks with an undisclosed third company.
The contract includes a base value $489 million and $26 million in options and incentives, according to the SEC filing.
“Work under the agreement will begin immediately with the delivery of the space vehicles to the customer for launch slated for 2027, operation of the satellites through 2030, and an option to operate the satellites through 2033,” the filing reads.
