Rocket Lab vertical push

Rocket Lab used the same day to add a new in-house satellite thruster and close its Mynaric buyout, pulling two hard-to-source parts of a spacecraft supply chain inside the company. (financialcontent.com) (markets.businessinsider.com) On April 14, Rocket Lab introduced Gauss, an electric propulsion system built around a Hall thruster, a power processing unit, and a propellant management assembly. The company said it has already set up a production line sized for more than 200 thrusters a year. (markets.businessinsider.com) Hours later, Rocket Lab said it had completed its acquisition of Mynaric for about $155.3 million. The German company makes laser optical communications terminals, the hardware satellites use to pass data by tightly aimed light beams instead of radio. (markets.businessinsider.com) (mynaric.com) Electric propulsion is the slow, efficient engine satellites use after launch to raise orbit, hold position, and dodge debris. Laser links are the space version of fiber carried through open air, moving data between satellites without routing every transmission back to Earth. (aviationweek.com) (mynaric.com) Rocket Lab has been building toward this for more than a year. In May 2024, Mynaric said Rocket Lab selected its CONDOR Mk3 terminals for the Space Development Agency’s Tranche 2 Transport Layer Beta program, a contract Mynaric valued at about $15 million with deliveries running through 2026. (mynaric.com) The supplier relationship then turned into a rescue deal. Rocket Lab said on March 11, 2025 that it had signed a non-binding term sheet to buy a controlling stake in Mynaric, after the German company entered restructuring proceedings and leaned on lender financing to keep operating. (rocketlabcorp.com) (mynaric.com) German regulators cleared the acquisition on March 30, 2026, removing the last formal hurdle before closing. Defense Daily reported on April 14 that the final price came in above the roughly $150 million figure Rocket Lab had cited when approval arrived. (financialcontent.com) (defensedaily.com) The moves fit Rocket Lab’s recent pattern of buying or building more of the parts around its launch business. In February 2026, it bought Optical Support, Inc. for optical payload hardware and opened a new precision machining complex for internal manufacturing. (rocketlabcorp.com 1) (rocketlabcorp.com 2) Rocket Lab’s pitch is that satellite builders want fewer bottlenecks as constellations get larger and military programs demand steady deliveries. By April 2026, the company’s public product list already stretched from launch vehicles and spacecraft buses to solar hardware, radios, software, separation systems, and now Gauss propulsion and Mynaric laser terminals. (rocketlabcorp.com)