# $9.5M Per Flight: The Unit Economics of Rocket Lab's 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. ---