The purchase of a portion of Virgin Orbit’s
assets includes the lease to one of its Long Beach facilities and
critical manufacturing infrastructure to accelerate the production
of Rocket Lab’s Neutron rocket, securing material savings on
planned capital expenditures.
Rocket Lab USA, Inc. (Nasdaq: RKLB) (“Rocket Lab” or “the
Company”), a leading launch and space systems company, today
announced it has been selected as a successful bidder and is
finalizing an asset purchase agreement for the purchase of certain
Long Beach California aerospace production and manufacturing assets
from Virgin Orbit Holdings, Inc. and certain of its subsidiaries
(“Virgin Orbit”) in Virgin Orbit’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy
auction.
Rocket Lab’s successful bid of approximately $16.1 million
includes the assumption of the lease to Virgin Orbit’s 144,000+
square foot headquarters and manufacturing complex at 4022 E.
Conant St. in Long Beach, California (the “Conant Facility”), and
certain production assets, machinery, and equipment located there.
The successful bid does not include the purchase of Virgin Orbit’s
Boeing 747 aircraft, launch vehicles or mobile launch assets for
its rockets, or other Virgin Orbit facilities, inventory and
assets. The purchase remains subject to finalizing the purchase
agreement and approval of the United States Bankruptcy Court for
the District of Delaware administering Virgin Orbit’s Chapter 11
bankruptcy cases and other customary closing conditions.
The combination of these assets with Rocket Lab’s existing
production, manufacturing, and test capabilities is expected to
advance the production of Rocket Lab’s larger launch vehicle,
Neutron. Rocket Lab will not be integrating Virgin Orbit’s launch
system within its existing launch services.
Rocket Lab CEO and Founder, Peter Beck, says: “Rocket Lab is a
global industry leader in launch, and our new, larger rocket
Neutron will bring added reliability, reusability, and innovation
to the launch sector. With Neutron’s design and development
well-advanced, this transaction represents a capital expenditure
savings opportunity to augment our production capability to bring
Neutron to the launch pad quickly to serve our customers and their
future success. Securing the lease to the Conant Facility adds to
our existing presence in Long Beach and provides co-located
engineering, manufacturing, and test capabilities for our Neutron
team.”
+ ABOUT Rocket Lab
Founded in 2006, Rocket Lab is an end-to-end space company with
an established track record of mission success. We deliver reliable
launch services, satellite manufacture, spacecraft components, and
on-orbit management solutions that make it faster, easier and more
affordable to access space. Headquartered in Long Beach,
California, Rocket Lab designs and manufactures the Electron small
orbital launch vehicle, the Photon satellite platform and the
Company is developing the large Neutron launch vehicle for
constellation deployment. Since its first orbital launch in January
2018, Rocket Lab’s Electron launch vehicle has become the second
most frequently launched U.S. rocket annually and has delivered 161
satellites to orbit for private and public sector organizations,
enabling operations in national security, scientific research,
space debris mitigation, Earth observation, climate monitoring, and
communications. Rocket Lab’s Photon spacecraft platform has been
selected to support NASA missions to the Moon and Mars, as well as
the first private commercial mission to Venus. Rocket Lab has three
launch pads at two launch sites, including two launch pads at a
private orbital launch site located in New Zealand and a third pad
in Virginia. To learn more, visit www.rocketlabusa.com.
+ Forward Looking Statements
This press release may contain certain “forward-looking
statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation
Reform Act of 1995, Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as
amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as
amended. All statements, other than statements of historical facts,
contained in this release, including statements regarding our
expectations about the purchase of the Virgin Orbit assets,
strategy, future operations, future financial position, projected
costs, prospects, plans and objectives of management, are
forward-looking statements. Words such as, but not limited to,
“anticipate,” “aim,” “believe,” “contemplate,” “continue,” “could,”
“design,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “might,” “plan,”
“possible,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “seek,” “should,”
“suggest,” “strategy,” “target,” “will,” “would,” and similar
expressions or phrases, or the negative of those expressions or
phrases, are intended to identify forward-looking statements,
although not all forward-looking statements contain these
identifying words. These forward-looking statements are based on
Rocket Lab’s current expectations and beliefs concerning future
developments and their potential effects. These forward-looking
statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties (many of which
are beyond Rocket Lab’s control), or other assumptions that may
cause actual results or performance to be materially different from
those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements.
Many factors could cause actual future events to differ materially
from the forward-looking statements in this release, including
risks related to the satisfaction of closing conditions, closing
and future use of the Virgin Orbit assets and Conant Facility;
delays and disruptions in expansion efforts; our dependence on a
limited number of customers; the harsh and unpredictable
environment of space in which our products operate which could
adversely affect our launch vehicle and spacecraft; increased
congestion from the proliferation of low Earth orbit constellations
which could materially increase the risk of potential collision
with space debris or another spacecraft and limit or impair our
launch flexibility and/or access to our own orbital slots;
increased competition in our industry due in part to rapid
technological development and decreasing costs; technological
change in our industry which we may not be able to keep up with or
which may render our services uncompetitive; average selling price
trends; failure of our launch vehicles, spacecraft and components
to operate as intended either due to our error in design in
production or through no fault of our own; launch schedule
disruptions; supply chain disruptions, product delays or failures;
design and engineering flaws; launch failures; natural disasters
and epidemics or pandemics; changes in governmental regulations
including with respect to trade and export restrictions, or in the
status of our regulatory approvals or applications; or other events
that force us to cancel or reschedule launches, including customer
contractual rescheduling and termination rights; risks that
acquisitions may not be completed on the anticipated time frame or
at all or do not achieve the anticipated benefits and results; and
the other risks detailed from time to time in Rocket Lab’s filings
with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”), including
under the heading “Risk Factors” in Rocket Lab’s Annual Report on
Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2022, which was
filed with the SEC on March 7, 2023, and elsewhere. There can be no
assurance that the future developments affecting Rocket Lab will be
those that we have anticipated. Except as required by law, Rocket
Lab is not undertaking any obligation to update or revise any
forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information,
future events or otherwise.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230523006112/en/
+ Rocket Lab Media Contact Murielle Baker
media@rocketlabusa.com
+ Rocket Lab INVESTOR RELATIONS Contact Colin Canfield
investors@rocketlabusa.com
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