Rocket Lab
Every Cosmic Herald story on Rocket Lab — missions, launches, discoveries, and the business of space, newest first.
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Commercial
Rocket Lab Buys Iridium for $8 Billion, Trading Rockets for a Working Satellite Network
Rocket Lab will acquire satellite operator Iridium in a cash-and-stock deal valuing it near $8 billion, buying 66 working satellites, rare L-band spectrum, and instant recurring revenue instead of building it all itself.
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Commercial
A Chinese Spaceplane Just Released an Object Into Orbit — and Commercial Trackers Caught It
Commercial space surveillance firms independently detected a Chinese spaceplane deploying an object in orbit, underscoring the growing clout of private-sector space domain awareness.
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Military Space
Rocket Lab Launches Victus Haze Satellite in Space Force's Most Ambitious Responsive Space Exercise Yet
Rocket Lab's Electron delivers a Space Force satellite for the Victus Haze exercise, testing whether the U.S. can rapidly deploy orbital assets when a crisis demands it.
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Commercial
China's Spark Space Bets on Electric-Pump Engines to Carve Out a Niche in the Small-Sat Launch Race
Two-year-old Hefei startup Spark Space has test-fired its Lieyan-2 kerosene-LOX engine and closed back-to-back funding rounds totaling over $14.8M, racing to debut its Jinhua-1 rocket by 2027.
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Commercial
The Upper Stage Problem: Why Reusable Second Stages Are Harder Than They Look
Recovering and reusing first stages was the revolution. But upper stages — which must survive orbital velocities and reentry — are a fundamentally harder problem, and the industry's three main bets are taking very different approaches.
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Commercial
Rocket Lab is building a reusable rocket. Why Neutron is harder than it looks.
Rocket Lab has built a successful small launch business on the back of its expendable Electron rocket. Now it's attempting something far more difficult: a medium-lift reusable launch vehicle called Neutron, aimed directly at SpaceX's market.
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Commercial
Rocket Lab's bid to challenge the Falcon 9 is down to a few months — and a few tests
Neutron, Rocket Lab's medium-lift, partially reusable rocket, is targeting its first flight in the last quarter of 2026. A tank failure earlier this year forced a redesign — but a fresh multi-launch deal shows customers are already betting on it.
