Rocket Lab buys solar power firm SolAero for $80 million

Paris/ Long Beach, 14 December 2021. – Rocket Lab acquires the space solar power firm SolAero for $80 million, the company said.

SolAero is a supplier of space solar power products and precision aerospace structures for the global aerospace market.

The strategic acquisition will see Rocket Lab add the world’s largest production line of high-performing space solar cells to its growing space systems business, Rocket Lab said.

As one of only two companies producing high-efficiency, space-grade solar cells in the U.S., SolAero’s space solar cells are among the highest performing in the world and support civil space exploration, science, defense and intelligence, and commercial markets, it says.

With the acquisition, Rocket Lab continues its strategy of vertical integration “to deliver a comprehensive space solution that spans spacecraft manufacture, satellite subsystems, flight software, ground operations, and launch”.

SolAero’s was founded in 1998, is headquartered in Albuquerque in New Mexico and employs today 425 people. Its products have played key roles in missions like NASA’s Parker Solar Probe and Mars Insight Lander, several Cygnus Cargo Resupply Missions to the International Space Station (ISS) and the little Mars helicopter Ingenuity.