Rocket Lab is picking up a second geostationary job for the US Space Force, this time as a component supplier inside another company’s contract. Viasat said Aug. 17 it chose the launch firm to build the satellite bus for a GEO spacecraft ordered under the Protected Tactical SATCOM-Global program, or PTS-G.
The subcontract covers the first Swarm 1 satellite, an anti-jam communications mission that must keep military links working under interference. Viasat holds the prime position, awarded by Space Systems Command in May as part of a production package worth roughly $437.7M across the selected contractors, and will integrate and operate the spacecraft itself.
Rocket Lab supplies the platform, a GEO variant of its Lightning bus called Lightning-GEO. The design has to survive the radiation environment 35,786 kilometers up and hold station for the program’s 12-plus-year service life, requirements that pushed the company to adapt its LEO production line for geostationary duty.
Financial terms were not disclosed, and a Space Systems Command spokesperson confirmed Rocket Lab’s role as bus supplier.
The win pairs with a $90M Space Force contract from May for two GEO satellites carrying a space domain awareness payload. Together they put Rocket Lab in two distinct positions in orbit: prime contractor on one program, specialist platform supplier inside another prime’s mission. The company is also known to US national security customers through its role on the Space Force’s aircraft-tracking constellation.
