Rocket Lab hits 50th launch milestone with its Electron rocket

Thursday night Rocket Lab hit a major milestone for any rocket launch provider, 50 launches. The little rocket that could, did, and has become one of the most flown rockets in the world right now.

In a clean countdown, Rocket Lab successfully lifted off its 50th Electron rocket at its private launch site in New Zealand. The major milestone marks a historic moment for the company that has been working on increasing its launch cadence for a few years now.

In fact, Electron reached 50 launches faster than any other commercial rocket, in just about seven years, beating SpaceX’s Falcon 9 by a few months.

Founded in 2006, four years after SpaceX, Rocket Lab too went through a series of smaller rockets before landing on the Electron’s design. Threading a needle in a difficult market, Rocket Lab has somehow made it work, but just barely. Facing increasing challenge from SpaceX’s rideshare missions, Rocket Lab will soon enter the medium launch market with Neutron, taking the fight directly to its competitor.

Electron’s 50th launch was for a French constellation of IoT satellites, allowing almost anything to connect to it. The final constellation will have 25 satellites, with the first five being launched on Thursday.

Kinéis, the company operating the constellation, shared yesterday morning that it had received the first communications from its satellites, which were also its first satellites to reach orbit.

The future for Rocket Lab is bright, although Electron might not always be in the picture. With the rise in constellations, Electron just doesn’t have the capacity to launch more than a handful of satellites at a time. So the chapter is still unfinished if a market for dedicated SmallSat launch services will exist come Neutron operations.

For now, congrats to the entire Rocket Lab team. I’ve had a chance to meet many of them and a long celebration of this milestone is very much entitled to.

Here’s to 50 more?