Planetary Systems Corp (Rocket Lab)

Planetary Systems Corporation (PSC) was founded in 1998 in Silver Spring, Maryland by Walter Holemans, who served as founder and chief engineer, with the mission to manufacture innovative, cost-effective, test-verified spacecraft mechanisms for the aerospace industry. Over more than two decades as an independent company, PSC became one of the most trusted names in spacecraft separation hardware, building a flight heritage of 100% mission success across more than 100 on-orbit separations.

PSC's signature product line is the Lightband — a patented, commercial-off-the-shelf mechanical separation system consisting of twin metal rings clamped together by an inner ring; a release mechanism contracts the clamp ring, freeing a set of springs that push the spacecraft and launch vehicle apart with low shock and low tip-off rates. The Mark II Motorized Lightband is offered across bolt-circle diameters from 8 to 38 inches and supports payloads up to 1,200 lb, while the Advanced Lightband is a lighter-weight next-generation variant offered from 8 to 24 inches. The company also developed the Canisterized Satellite Dispenser (CSD), a non-pyrotechnic, fully encapsulated small-satellite deployer available in 3U, 6U, and 12U sizes, widely used to launch CubeSats and other secondary and tertiary payloads.

Rocket Lab USA announced its agreement to acquire PSC on November 15, 2021, and closed the transaction on December 1, 2021, for $42 million in cash plus 1,720,841 shares of Rocket Lab common stock, with the potential for up to 956,023 additional earn-out shares tied to PSC's 2022–2023 financial performance. The acquisition — Rocket Lab's second in two months, following Advanced Solutions Inc. — added spacecraft separation and satellite-dispenser hardware to Rocket Lab's vertically integrated space-systems portfolio. Planetary Systems Corporation now operates as "PSC by Rocket Lab," with its Lightband and Canisterized Satellite Dispenser product lines sold directly through Rocket Lab's Space Systems division; the original planetarysystemscorp.com domain now redirects to Rocket Lab's website.