Vector Launch

Vector Launch was an American small satellite launch startup founded in 2016 and headquartered in Tucson, Arizona, that developed the Vector-R and Vector-H small launch vehicles targeting the emerging microsatellite and nanosatellite deployment market before ceasing operations in December 2019.

The company was co-founded by Jim Cantrell — an aerospace entrepreneur who was among the original SpaceX founding team and served as SpaceX's first VP of Business Development — and John Garvey, whose Garvey Spacecraft Corporation had a long history of experimental rocket development. Vector's approach used liquid oxygen and propylene (a denser alternative to methane) in a gas generator cycle engine called Morpheus, targeting a payload capacity of approximately 100 kg to sun-synchronous orbit for the Vector-R rocket at a launch price of approximately $1.5 million. The larger Vector-H was designed for 300+ kg payloads.

Vector conducted several suborbital test flights of subscale vehicles from Spaceport Camden in Georgia and other test sites, demonstrating propulsion and guidance systems, but never reached orbital flight before its collapse. The company raised approximately $100 million in venture capital, including from Sequoia Capital and Morgan Stanley's Counterpoint Global fund, before a breakdown in investor relations and funding difficulties led to an involuntary Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing in December 2019.

Some Vector intellectual property and engineering talent dispersed across the small launch ecosystem. Jim Cantrell subsequently founded Phantom Space Corporation in 2019 to continue small launch development. Garvey Spacecraft Corporation continued independently. Vector's trajectory became a cautionary case study in the capital intensity of rocket development versus optimistic fundraising timelines for NewSpace launch startups.