Rocket Lab is on a mission to become an end-to-end commercial space company, with a portfolio it says includes reaction wheels (flywheels with electric motors used for three-axis attitude control), star trackers, flight and ground software, separation systems as well as radios and solar power for space.
To that purpose, the California-based company said it has added to its suite of radio systems, which work in the L, S, C, X, and Ka-bands. These span several radio frequency ranges from 1 to 40 GHz, for different communications applications.
Rocket Lab has licensed the design for the devices since 2022, and it's based on Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory’s Frontier Lite radio.
It's a software defined radio; this is a computer-based system in which traditionally analogue radio components have been implemented as software, as the name implies. For an example, check out the KiwiSDR which is made in New Zealand and can be hooked up to networks to be Internet-accessible.
The Frontier radios have flown on several space missions, including Rocket Lab's own ones.
Earlier today, Rocket Lab founder Peter Beck shared on social media the news of STARRAY solar panels for satellites:
Space does not always need to be so hard. https://t.co/3TSVtUwkBt
— Peter Beck (@Peter_J_Beck) April 8, 2025
Two STARRAY options are available: L-Star that supplies around 130 to 390 Watts per wing, depending on the number of deployed panels; and T-Star, which is aimed at bigger, high-power satellites, providing 180 to 1800 Watts per wing.
Rocket Lab solar power has been deployed in over 1100 satellites so far the company said, with more than 500 others scheduled to launch.
In March Rocket Lab said it intended to buy Germany's Mynaric AG, which provides laser communications, for US$75 million. Mynaric's optical communications systems using lasers have been demonstrated with the Panavia Tornado combat aircraft that achieved data rates of 1 gigabit per second over 60 kilometres to a ground station, while flying at 800 km/h.
Mynaric has been working with Rocket Lab as a subcontractor for the CONDOR Mk3 optical terminals, as part of a US$515 million contract with the United States Space Development Agency (SDA) to build 18 satellites.
There's a New Zealand connection to Mynaric: Kiwi billionaire Peter Thiel invested in the company in 2021 apparently.
Facebook has also tested Mynaric's gear, achieving bidirectional 10 Gbps connectivity air-to-ground in 2018, as part of the now defunct Aquila solar-powered drone project. Aquila was meant to provide Internet connectivity to unserved areas, flying at altitudes of 18,000 to 27,000 metres, and staying in the air for up to three months at a time.
Although Mark Zuckerberg seemed enthusiastic about Aquila when the project kicked off in 2016, it only lasted for two years with internal development stopping in 2018.
On a related note, Mynaric isn't the only player in the lasers in space comms field: there's the Transcelestial startup in Singapore, which is getting ready to ship optical devices like TMOGS (The Mother of All Ground Stations) that offer 10 Gbps downstream speeds and 100 Mbps uplinks.
Transcelestial said in December last year it is working to provide fast laser communications in Australia's Northern Territory, together with Paspalis Capital. The company wants to become an internet provider and intends to fire Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites into space to build a global laser network.
Airbus Ventures, In-Q-Tel which is CIA's venture capital arm, Wavemaker Partners, and Twitch.tv founder Michael Seibel are some of the organisations and people that have invested in Transcelestial.
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