Rocket Lab Acquires Pasadena Robotics Firm Behind Mars Rover’s Arm

The company that built the robotic arm exploring the surface of Mars will reportedly  soon belong to Rocket Lab.

Rocket Lab Corporation announced May 7 that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Motiv Space Systems, the Pasadena-based maker of robotic arms, motion control systems, and precision spacecraft mechanisms whose technology powers NASA’s Perseverance rover and key hardware for the agency’s upcoming CADRE lunar rovers. The deal is expected to close during the second quarter of 2026, according to a Rocket Lab press release. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Motiv’s 50 engineers and technicians and its manufacturing facilities at 350 N. Halstead St. will transfer to Rocket Lab, the Long Beach-based launch and spacecraft company, which trades on the Nasdaq under the ticker RKLB. The Pasadena operation will join Rocket Lab’s existing facilities across California, Virginia, Colorado, Maryland, New Mexico, Arizona, Canada, Germany, and New Zealand.

The company will be rebranded as Rocket Lab Robotics.

Motiv was founded in Pasadena in 2014 by three robotics engineers — Chris Thayer, Brett Lindenfeld, and Tom McCarthy — who had previously worked together at Alliance Spacesystems and later MDA US Systems, the latter of which was based in Pasadena at the time. The trio had built robotic arms for NASA’s Spirit, Opportunity, and Curiosity Mars rovers before striking out on their own and winning the contract for the Perseverance rover’s arm.

“We’re excited to join Rocket Lab,” Thayer, Motiv’s CEO, said in the company’s press release. “It’s a natural next step for Motiv and allows us to scale what we’ve built and support a growing customer base.”

Beyond its Mars heritage, Motiv contributed critical hardware for NASA’s CADRE mission — three suitcase-size autonomous rovers headed to the Moon later this year aboard Intuitive Machines’ IM-3 lander. According to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which manages CADRE from its Pasadena campus, Motiv contributed the rovers’ mobility system and chassis, the base station, rover deployers, and motor controller boards.

For Rocket Lab, the acquisition serves two purposes, according to the company’s press release. It adds robotics capability for future planetary and national security missions, including a potential commercial Mars Sample Return mission. Rocket Lab said the deal would position it to offer solutions for surface operations such as sample collection, assembly, and deployment of scientific instruments, as well as precision motion control systems for optical payloads and other on-orbit applications.

The deal also brings in-house the design and manufacturing of solar array drive assemblies, antenna and propulsion gimbals, filter wheels, focus mechanisms, and precision drive electronics — components the company described as expensive and supply-constrained, creating bottlenecks for satellite constellation manufacturing. By vertically integrating those capabilities, Rocket Lab said it aims to reduce external dependencies, lower costs, and accelerate production timelines for its own programs and its customers.

“Motiv has built a stellar reputation for delivering reliable, high-performance robotics and mechanisms that thrive in the harshest space environments,” Sir Peter Beck, Rocket Lab’s founder and CEO, said in the press release. “Our acquisition strategy is simple but proven and effective: we identify the best space technologies that have struggled to scale, and we bring them into the Rocket Lab ecosystem. By applying our resources, expertise, and manufacturing scale, we make these technologies more accessible and affordable for the global space industry.”

The Motiv deal is Rocket Lab’s seventh acquisition since 2020. The company acquired satellite component maker Sinclair Interplanetary in 2020, followed by flight software company Advanced Solutions, Inc. and spacecraft separation systems maker Planetary Systems Corporation in 2021, solar cell manufacturer SolAero Holdings in 2022, electro-optical sensor maker Geost in 2025, and laser communications firm Mynaric AG in April 2026 for $155.3 million.

“We’ve focused on delivering mission-critical robotics and motion control systems for some of the most demanding space missions,” Thayer said, “and this positions us to expand that work into new mission areas.”