Rocket Lab USA, Inc. (NASDAQ:RKLB) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

And we’ve got stuff on the pad and things are moving along because as you’ve seen from some of the other emerging players some of them have had a rocket on the pad for a year, working through previously the launch vehicle issues. So it’s pretty hard to just put a stake in sand, but we’ll keep it really updated on their progress. And if there’s anything that crops up that we think is going to have an impact to timing we’ll see. Adam?

Adam Spice: Yeah. I would say that, our baseline plan of record that’s built into our financial plan assumes a launch in Q4 of 2024.

Edison Yu: All right. Appreciate the color. Thanks.

Operator: And the next question comes from the line of Austin Moeller of Canaccord. Please proceed.

Austin Moeller: Hi. Good afternoon. So just my question about Peter’s comment around the ocean recovery of the Electron, if we go from recovering 50% of the Electrons to potentially recovering 60% to 70% of Electrons by doing water recovery what does that do to your projections for gross margins for the launch business relative to your prior expectations?

Adam Spice: Yeah, Austin. It’s a good question. I mean I think it really doesn’t change it, because we €“ this basically just buys down the risk of getting to that margin target, right? So I would say, the margin targets in a business like this are never slam dunks. There’s a lot of hard work that goes into it. Recovery is part of it. There are other elements that we’re driving getting to our target margins, including a launch cadence of launching twice monthly also some kind of, I would say, more traditional savings from BOM elements and labor efficiencies and so forth. So all the kind of factors into our longer-term target of getting into the low 50% gross margin range on a non-GAAP basis. So again, I wouldn’t build in any increase to that based on this. I think it just maybe it de-risks our ability to get there or what time frame we get there.

Peter Beck: Yeah, I’d agree 100% to that. The recovery is one element of the program here.

Austin Moeller: Okay. And then also just considering your capered C position within the launch market right now just given the shortage of available launch vehicles, you see Amazon and a Moon Lander company all scrambling to get onto a ULA launch, even though it’s a first launch for that vehicle. And do you expect to increase pricing at all for the Electron just given the launch shortage and inflation pressures, or do you plan to keep prices where they’re at?

Peter Beck: I mean, Electron pricing has never gone down. It’s only ever gone up. Yes. Maybe you want to take that Adam.

Adam Spice: Yes. I think the — over time, we — again we see prices increasing. I think the greatest factor overall that leads to increased pricing is that, as we see more failures from aspirational launch companies and a lot of these folks just won’t have the capital in my opinion to execute. And so, I think it’s just a matter of time before kind of the natural selection process really leads us down to a point where launch for Electron becomes more expensive, not less expensive. And I think, that also might be the reason why we’re starting to see more kind of bulk buys from constellation customers, because I think they realize that. I think as difficult as it is to commit to one platform in — with the potential of maybe cheaper and more plentiful opportunities coming onboard for launch are coming out to the market, I think they’re also realizing that again the difficulty of doing this and having a reliable launch platform is super important, because time is money for a constellation operator.