Rocket Lab USA to acquire satellite components maker Mynaric in $150 M deal…

13 Mar 2025

…and NASA launches SPHEREx and PUNCH to study solar system and Universe’s beginnings.

Rocket Lab USA, a Long Beach, Ca-based developer of launch services and space systems, has announced the intent alongside certain lenders to acquire Mynaric, based in Gilching, Germany. Mynaric produces laser optical communications terminals for space, and mobile applications.

The transaction, which involves a $75 million cash payment and a possible further $75 million in shares depending on future performance, is expected to close following the completion of Mynaric’s ongoing restructuring proceedings.

The acquisition is expected to strengthen Rocket Lab’s capabilities as a leading launch provider, spacecraft manufacturer, and supplier of satellite components at scale. Rocket Lab said it may fund this and other future acquisition opportunities with proceeds from equity offerings.

Strategic importance of the deal, according to Rocket Lab

• Laser communication has become a pain point for constellation operators, with products not readily available in high volumes at an affordable price. Through previous acquisitions Rocket Lab has proven its ability to take satellite subsystems and components previously only available in subscale quantities with long lead times and make them affordable and at scale.
• With an initial purchase price expected to be approximately $75 million, representing a fraction of the over $300 million invested in Mynaric to-date, Rocket Lab would establish its first European foothold in Munich, Germany, with a team of 300+ staff, opening up incremental European growth opportunities.
• Rocket Lab would acquire extensive production assets, intellectual property, product inventory and committed backlog related to satellite-to-satellite optical connectivity solutions for next generation constellations.

Mynaric is already a supplier to Rocket Lab, providing CONDOR Mk3 optical communication terminals for Rocket Lab’s $515 million prime contract with the U.S. Space Development Agency to produce 18 satellites for the Tranche 2 Transport Layer-Beta.”

Rocket Lab founder and CEO Sir Peter Beck said: “Rocket Lab is pursuing every part of the space value chain. We launch our own rockets, we build satellites in constellation volumes, and now we’re closing in on the final step and most valuable part of the space economy – operating our own constellations to provide data and services from space using our new Flatellite spacecraft. Mynaric has paved the way in developing laser technology and we look forward to making the technology available at scale for our own constellations and those of our customers.”

…and NASA launches SPHEREx and PUNCH to study solar system

NASA has announced the launch of its newest astrophysics observatory, SPHEREx, which “is on its way to study the origins of our universe and the history of galaxies, and to search for the ingredients of life in our galaxy.”

Standing for Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer, SPHEREx lifted off on March 11 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

Riding with SPHEREx aboard the Falcon 9 were four small satellites that make up the agency’s PUNCH (“Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere”) mission, which will study how the Sun’s outer atmosphere becomes the solar wind.

“Everything in NASA science is interconnected, and sending both SPHEREx and PUNCH up on a single rocket doubles the opportunities to do incredible science in space,” said Nicky Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC.