Rocket Lab's Lightning satellite bus.
WASHINGTON — Rocket Lab said May 21 it won a $90 million contract from the U.S. Space Force to design, manufacture and operate two geostationary satellites the military will use to monitor and track objects in orbit.
The award marks Rocket Lab’s first satellite production program for geostationary orbit (GEO)..
The contract includes spacecraft manufacturing, launch integration and up to five years of on-orbit operations. The satellites will host two electro-optical sensor payloads previously ordered by the Space Systems Command under a separate $80.7 million contract with Geost, a payload manufacturer Rocket Lab acquired in 2025 and folded into Rocket Lab Optical Systems.
Rocket Lab, based in Long Beach, California, said the satellites will be built on its Lightning spacecraft bus, a satellite platform the company is using for missile-tracking satellites it is producing for the Space Development Agency as well as for commercial constellations.
