Spacenews这篇关于Rocketlab的报道...

Spacenews这篇关于Rocketlab的报道还是很中肯而且信息量不少
1、The earnings revealed a striking difference between the company’s two main lines of business, launch and space systems. That latter category, which includes its Photon spacecraft and components business, generated $34.1 million in revenue in the quarter. Launch provided only $6.6 million from a single Electron launch.
2022年一季度，Rocketlab的两条业务线，发射服务业务和空间系统研制业务（包含Photon上面级及星箭一体化研制和卫星部组件配套），空间系统研制业务一季度收入3410万美元，而发射服务业务由于只进行了一次Electron发射（2022年2月28日发射Synspective公司的一颗组网SAR卫星，目标轨道561km SSO），所以仅收入660万美元。
2、Rocket Lab recognizes launch revenue in the quarter the launch takes place, which can result in significant variations from quarter to quarter depending on when launches take place. The first launch of the second quarter, carrying two BlackSky imaging satellites, took place in early April but was postponed from late March because of weather, causing the quarter in which the revenue was recognized to shift from the first to the second quarter.
Launch cadence is “dominated by customer readiness,” said Peter Beck, Rocket Lab chief executive, on the call. “Launch is always a little bit lumpy.”
全球所有的火箭公司都一样，发射服务业务只有在发射任务真正履行完成后才能确认收入，这带来几个风险，除了发射本身的技术风险以外（有可能的失利风险），发射任务的进度根据用户的需求确定，可早亦可晚，尤其是dedicated（专车）任务，虽然这都是本着一切为用户着想的核心逻辑，但实际上对火箭公司本身财报来说，非常丑陋，尤其是上市公司，公开影响很坏，所以但凡上市的火箭公司，一定会去发展别的业务线，而不是仅靠发射服务业务单一支撑，这就是原因之一（当然，最重要的原因还是因为发射服务根本就不挣钱）。
3、There is also a variation in revenue per launch, company executives acknowledged. The CAPSTONE launch is valued at about $10 million under the contract NASA awarded in 2020. However, Spice said that the company’s previous launch May 2, carrying 34 smallsats, produced only a “de minimis” amount of revenue.
尽管有NASA爸爸给的CAPSTONE任务天价近1000万美金的发射服务费，但也有那种收入少的可怜的任务，比如5月2号执行的Electron的一箭34星商业发射任务，Rocketlab的CFO Spice先生说只得到了“微不足道”的收入，保守分析距其公开宣称的单次发射450万美元的标准价相去甚远，这也是正常的，这种拼箭任务会极大的浪费整流罩包络和运载能力（每颗星都会附带额外的安装结构，这也会吃掉本就不充裕的运载能力），但市场公认的单位质量载荷发射成本就这么多...至于亏这么多钱为什么还要发？我理解一个是为了验证他的回收技术（这次任务进行了直升机抓火箭一子级的尝试），增加可靠性子样，再就是资本市场的约束...
4、In the long term, Beck estimated that the company will attempt recovery on about half of all Electron launches. The recovery systems reduce the vehicle’s payload by 10% to 15%, he said, and some customers need all of Electron’s performance for their missions. Spice said the company would likely use a booster first on missions with lower performance requirements that enable reusability, then at the end of its life launch on a mission whose higher performance needs would rule out recovery.
老板小胖子Peter Beck也承认增加伞降回收装置等措施使整个火箭的运载能力下降了10%到15%，本来Electron的运载能力就不高...所以，他们只能选择在用户对运载能力要求不那么高的时候选择进行回收试验，换句话说，直白点，为了回收，Electron发射服务的性价比被大幅降低了，当然，你可以认为这都是暂时的，等回收复用手段成熟了，性价比会被大幅提高的，当然，我也希望如此，拭目以待好了 武汉