SpaceX has pursued its founder’s dream of reaching Mars for decades, but now that Elon Musk has shifted the company’s focus to the Moon, another aerospace firm appears prepared to take the lead in the race to the Red Planet.
Rocket Lab—a California-based aerospace firm—isn’t directly competing with SpaceX yet, but it has come a long way from the small-satellite launches that defined its early years. The twin spacecraft it built for NASA’s ESCAPADE mission are currently en route to Mars, marking its biggest leap into interplanetary exploration yet. Now vying to build NASA’s Mars Telecommunications Orbiter, Rocket Lab appears to be positioning itself as the new “Mars company.”
At least, that’s what a Wednesday X post heavily implied. Rocket Lab first shared a link to a blog post about the importance of a Mars Telecommunications Orbiter, then replied to the thread with a memeified screenshot of a scene from the 2013 film Captain Phillips. The overlaid text reads, “Look at me, I am the Mars company now”—a parody of the most famous line from the film.
— Rocket Lab (@RocketLab) February 18, 2026
Rocket Lab declined to answer Gizmodo’s questions about the intention behind this post, and one should be careful not to read too much into it. With that said, there are real reasons to believe that the company might seize SpaceX’s pivot as an opportunity to expand its Mars ambitions.
Rocket Lab’s growing Mars capabilities
In recent years, Rocket Lab has shown dogged interest in leading NASA’s Mars science missions. The company won the ESCAPADE contract in 2021 and built two identical orbiters—named Blue and Gold—for the mission.
ESCAPADE launched aboard Blue Origin’s New Glenn in November, sending Blue and Gold into a “loiter” orbit that loops around Earth’s Lagrange point 2. When Earth and Mars align in the fall, the orbiters will use our planet’s gravity to slingshot toward the Red Planet. NASA expects them to reach Mars by September 2027 and begin gathering data on how solar wind interacts with the planet’s magnetic environment by mid-2028.
In 2024, NASA awarded Rocket Lab another contract to study alternative concepts for the Mars Sample Return, which aimed to bring samples collected by the Perseverance rover back to Earth. That mission was canceled in early January due to longstanding technical and budgetary challenges, despite Rocket Lab’s attempt to overcome them.
That has not discouraged the company from trying to sign another Mars mission contract with NASA. Rocket Lab proposed an independently launched Mars Telecommunications Orbiter as part of its Mars Sample Return architecture, which would serve as a dedicated communications relay to support future Red Planet missions. NASA has not yet selected a company to build the orbiter, but Rocket Lab is a top competitor alongside Blue Origin and Lockheed Martin.
On the launch side of things, Rocket Lab is developing Neutron, a partially reusable, medium-lift rocket designed to deliver 28,600 pounds (13,000 kilograms) of payload to low-Earth orbit and 3,300 pounds (1,500 kilograms) to Mars or Venus. Once operational, Neutron will directly compete with SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and could eventually launch crewed missions too. Its first flight is expected to take place this year.
Seizing an opportunity
As Rocket Lab works to expand its role in NASA’s Mars science programs and nears the debut of its Neutron rocket, it is assembling the tools to compete in a market that SpaceX has temporarily deprioritized.
To be clear, Rocket Lab and SpaceX have very different Mars goals. While SpaceX has long pursued human exploration and eventual colonization, Rocket Lab is focusing on uncrewed science missions and infrastructure support—at least for now. Still, SpaceX’s pivot could give Rocket Lab an opening to establish itself as a top competitor in the commercial race to the Red Planet.
The next few years will be crucial as Rocket Lab aims to grow its capabilities and its partnership with NASA. If the company can continue to deliver on its promises, it could become invaluable to future Mars missions.
