# $9.5M Per Flight: The Unit Economics of Rocket Lab's Pentagon Deal

- slug: 95m-per-flight-the-unit-economics-of-rocket-labs-pentagon-deal
- date: 2026-03-20
- category: Space & Aerospace

Rocket Lab's Hypersonics Gambit: $190M Contract Turns a Launch Company Into Defense Infrastructure

Rocket Lab just signed its biggest launch contract ever — $190 million for 20 hypersonic test flights over four years — and the number almost obscures the real story.

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