US-based spaceflight company Rocket Lab has raised $75m in funding to enhance the production of its Electron satellite launch vehicle.

The recently closed Series D financing round has been led by Data Collective, Promus Ventures and an undisclosed investor.

Rocket Lab’s existing investors, including Khosla Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners and K1W1, have also participated in the new investment series.

The latest round has enabled Rocket Lab to increase its value by more than $1bn.

Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck said: “Currently, small satellite companies wait years to get on orbit, often at the mercy and schedules of larger payloads.

“With Electron, they will be provided a high-frequency, quality launch service that will take customers where they want to go, when they want to fly. The commercial and humanitarian applications this will open up are endless.

“The satellites Electron will launch are used to provide optimised crop monitoring, natural disaster prediction, internet from space, improved weather reporting, up-to-date maritime data and search-and-rescue services.”

"They will be provided a high-frequency, quality launch service that will take customers where they want to go, when they want to fly."

Last month, Rocket Lab shipped its first Electron vehicle to Launch Complex 1, the company’s private launch facility on the Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand.

The vehicle is currently undergoing various tests to ensure a safe flight ahead of its test launch.

As part of the test flight programme, Rocket Lab is planning to send its own flying laboratory, complete with 20,000 data channels, into low-Earth orbit.

Image: Rocket Lab headquarters. Photo: courtesy of Rocket Lab USA.