""That little rocket is too small," Kemp said in Berkeley about Rocket 3. "And so is Electron." Electron may be small, but it has launched more than 70 times. It could generate as much as $200 million in revenue for Rocket Lab this year. And it has provided an excellent test bed for Rocket Lab as it seeks to build the much larger Neutron vehicle, with a reusable first stage."
"Overall Kemp's talk is insightful, offering thoughtful commentary on Astra's history and vision for the future. The company is a startup again, now focusing on building a mobile, tactical rocket that could serve national defense interests. Instead of focusing on reuse, the company wants to build a lot of rockets cheaply. It has built a large factory in California to accomplish this."
Astra reassessed its market strategy after concluding that very small rockets could not serve demand for satellite launches and that CubeSats alone were insufficient. The company shifted toward producing inexpensive, mobile tactical rockets aimed at national defense customers, prioritizing manufacturing scale over reusability. A large California factory was constructed to enable high-volume production. Rocket reliability became a primary focus, with processes and manufacturing improved to reduce failures. Rocket Lab's Electron has flown over 70 times, generated substantial revenue, and served as a development platform for a larger reusable Neutron vehicle.
Read at Ars Technica
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