Rocket Lab has been selected into the U.S. Space Force's Space Data Network (SDN) Consortium and competitively awarded two delivery orders totalling $12 million to prove out secure, high-speed optical communications for a future military satellite backbone.
A new lane onto the SDN Backbone
The Long Beach-based end-to-end space company (Nasdaq: RKLB) said on August 18 that its onboarding into the consortium — run by the Space Force's Space Systems Command — expands vendor diversity for the Space Data Network Backbone (SDN-B), a program to deliver a resilient, low-latency, high-capacity global military satellite communications network. Under the delivery orders, Rocket Lab will design, test and demonstrate technologies for satellite-to-satellite and satellite-to-ground optical links, culminating in a live in-orbit demonstration in 2027 using its own Photon spacecraft carrying advanced optical payloads.
Second Space Force win in a week
The SDN Consortium award follows Rocket Lab's onboarding on August 17 to the Space Force's $981 million NITE-STAR (National Test & Training Infrastructure — Space Testing And Range) program, and lands as the company continues to scale beyond commercial small-lift. "This represents a significant opportunity to leverage Rocket Lab's vertically integrated capabilities to help ensure seamless interoperability and global connectivity for the Joint Force," founder and CEO Sir Peter Beck said in the release.
Photon, Neutron and a defense pipeline
Rocket Lab plans to run the demonstration on Photon, its own configurable satellite bus that has already flown NASA's CAPSTONE mission to lunar orbit. The company is separately racing to a maiden launch of Neutron, its reusable medium-lift rocket, and has spent much of 2026 winning defense pilot work — a mix highlighted in our recent ESA European Launcher Challenge coverage, alongside broader Pentagon activity in the Drone Dominance program.
Reporting based on Rocket Lab's August 18, 2026 press release via GlobeNewswire and Air & Space Forces Magazine.