For Rocket Lab, ready to begin commercial launches, life is “good”

Enlarge / In January, Rocket Lab reached orbit for the first time with the second launch of its Electron vehicle. (credit: Rocket Lab)

Life is pretty good for Rocket Lab and its founder Peter Beck right now. With two test flights of its Electron rocket completed in the last 10.5 months, the company says it will move into commercial operations later this month. The 14-day launch window for the "It's Business Time" mission, carrying two private payloads, opens on April 20.

In an interview, Beck said Rocket Lab hopes to fly eight missions in 2018 and reach a monthly launch cadence by the end of the year. The company's initial test flight in May 2017 failed to reach orbit, but a second flight in January of this year was almost entirely successful. Rocket Lab will become the first of a number of small-satellite launch companies to begin serving customers.

As a result of that January test flight, Beck said customers have responded. "Over the years, companies in this market have come and gone, and at some point in time, customers said, 'show me when it works,'" Beck said. "Now we have proof that it works. Since January, the sales team has just been going flat out. It’s fairly obvious when you have a pent-up market, and you have a solution, life becomes good."