Polskie Forum Astronautyczne
Artykuły o tematyce astronautycznej => Artykuły astronautyczne => Wątek zaczęty przez: Orionid w Grudnia 13, 2019, 19:44
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Small launch vehicle companies seek improvements in government contracting
by Jeff Foust — June 26, 2019 [SN]
(https://spacenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/electron-makeitrain.jpg)
A Rocket Lab Electron during a rehearsal for its upcoming "Make It Rain" launch for Spaceflight. Credit: Rocket Lab
WASHINGTON — As Rocket Lab prepares the next launch of its Electron rocket, it and other small launch vehicle developers say the U.S. government can be a better, and smarter, customer for their services.
A Rocket Lab Electron is scheduled to lift off from the company’s launch site on New Zealand’s Mahia Peninsula during a two-hour window that opens at 12:30 a.m. Eastern June 27. The mission, dubbed “Make It Rain,” is a dedicated rideshare mission for Spaceflight Industries carrying several small satellites, including BlackSky’s Global-3 imaging satellite, with a total payload mass of 80 kilograms.
https://spacenews.com/small-launch-vehicle-companies-seek-improvements-in-government-contracting/
Rocket Lab inaugurates U.S. launch site
by Jeff Foust — December 12, 2019
(https://spacenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/lc2-wallops-879x485.jpg)
An aerial view of Rocket Lab's Launch Complex 2 (right) under construction on Wallops Island adjacent to the existing launch pad for Northrop Grumman's Antares rocket. Credit: Rocket Lab
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Air Force will be the first customer for a Rocket Lab Electron launching in 2020 from a new launch site in Virginia, the company announced Dec. 12.
Rocket Lab formally opened Launch Complex (LC) 2, a launch pad at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at Wallops Island, Virginia, adjacent to the pad used by Northrop Grumman’s Antares rocket. The launch site, similar to the company’s existing Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand, is specifically designed for U.S. government customers who prefer to launch from American soil and also want responsive launch capabilities.
“We’ve certainly made a number of improvements to the pad, but the pads look identical,” Peter Beck, chief executive of Rocket Lab, said in an interview. “That’s part of the reason why we were able to build the site so quickly.” Construction of the pad started in February after a groundbreaking ceremony in October 2018 (https://spacenews.com/breaking-rocket-lab-chooses-wallops-as-its-u-s-launch-site/).
The launch pad does have some additional features to support U.S. national security customers, like increased security, he said. A separate integration facility down the road from the pad can support multiple Electron rockets with separate clean rooms for payload processing, part of efforts to be able to handle launches on short notice. The company estimates the site will support a staff of about 30 employees from engineering to office administration.
Rocket Lab announced that the first customer to launch on an Electron from LC-2 will be the U.S. Air Force, which will fly a microsatellite mission called STP-27RM for the service’s Space Test Program in the second quarter of 2020. That program provides flight opportunities for advanced technologies seeking demonstrations in space.
“We look forward to Rocket Lab successfully launching the STP-27RM mission from Launch Complex 2 next spring, which will test new capabilities that we will need in the future,” said Col. Robert Bongiovi, director of the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center’s Launch Enterprise, in a statement.
Air Force Lt. Col. Meagan Thrush, program element monitor for space launch and control, said at a press conference that the payload is a research and development satellite called Monolith. That satellite, developed by the Air Force Research Lab, will examine the ability of small satellites to support “large aperture space weather payloads,” she said.
While Rocket Lab says LC-2 is complete, some final testing is planned prior to that first launch. “The next big step is to put a rocket on the pad and then do all the interface testing between the launch vehicle and the pad,” Beck said.
LC-2 is designed to handle up to 12 launches per year. Beck said that once they get that first launch done next week and handle any “teething issues” with the new pad, they’ll be ready to support additional launches “as customers require.” He expected that the company will, between the two launch sites, perform at least one launch a month in 2020, double the rate of six launches the company conducted in 2019.
Another major effort for Rocket Lab in the next year will be efforts to recover and reuse the Electron’s first stage. The company achieved a milestone in that effort in Electron’s most recent launch Dec. 6, controlling the rocket’s first stage after stage separation all the way down to the ocean surface.
“It was awesome. It was fantastic,” he said of the reentry test, which required keeping the stage in a narrow corridor as it reentered and flew through a period of deceleration the company has dubbed “the wall.” The stage, he said, remained in one piece all the way to ocean impact.
“It puts us light-years ahead of where we’re expecting to be, and really accelerates our recovery efforts,” he said.
Beck said the company will duplicate the test on the company’s next launch, scheduled for as soon as January from LC-1 in New Zealand. He said that the company should be able to provide more live video during the stage’s reentry on that launch than on last week’s mission, where the company cut off the video feed in order to ensure it received engineering data with the available bandwidth.
After that, he said the company will “go quiet” for a few months to undertake another block upgrade of the rocket to make additional changes for recovering the stage, such as the inclusion of parachutes. “The next step is to splash it down into the water gently, and then the step after that is to recover it in mid-air with a helicopter,” he said.
Source: https://spacenews.com/rocket-lab-inaugurates-u-s-launch-site/
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Rocket Lab to debut Virginia launch pad with U.S. Air Force mission next year
December 12, 2019 Stephen Clark [SFN]
(https://mk0spaceflightnoa02a.kinstacdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/4kNv1vjg.jpeg)
File photo of an Electron rocket lifting off from Rocket Lab’s launch site in New Zealand, powered by nine liquid-fueled Rutherford engines. Credit: Rocket Lab / Andrew Burns & Simon Moffatt
Rocket Lab plans to launch a research and development microsatellite mission for the U.S. Air Force in the first half of 2020 on the the first flight from the company’s new launch facility on Virginia’s Eastern Shore, officials announced Thursday.
Company officials announced the payload and launch schedule Thursday during a media briefing at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility to provide an update on Rocket Lab’s first U.S. launch pad.
Rocket Lab, a U.S.-New Zealand company, has launched all 10 of its Electron rocket missions from the privately-owned Launch Complex 1 on Mahia Peninsula, located on the eastern coast of New Zealand’s North Island. The new facility in Virginia — designated Launch Complex 2 — will allow Rocket Lab to hasten its flight pace, providing a location to launch U.S. military and other government payloads, and adding an alternative launch site for company’s commercial customers.
“Today, just 10 months after we started construction on launch site 2, we’re proud to call Wallops Island and Virginia our home,” said Peter Beck, Rocket Lab’s founder and CEO. “We’re very proud to deliver a new launch capability to the United States. We’re very proud to support U.S. missions with a U.S. launch vehicle from U.S. soil.”
Rocket Lab has its corporate headquarters in Southern California, and operates two rocket factories in California and in New Zealand.
The first launch of Rocket Lab’s Electron booster from Virginia is planned in the second quarter of 2020 — between the beginning of April and the end of June — with a research and development microsatellite for the U.S. Air Force, officials said Thursday. The mission will be managed by the U.S. military’s Space Test Program, which develops and launches scientific, experimental and technology demonstration satellites for the Defense Department.
“It’s an honor and privilege to be launching a U.S. Air Force’s Space Test Program payload as the inaugural mission from Launch Complex 2,” said Peter Beck, Rocket Lab’s founder and CEO, in a statement. “We’ve already successfully delivered STP payloads on Electron from Launch Complex 1, and we’re proud to be providing that same rapid, responsive, and tailored access to orbit from U.S. soil.
“With the choice of two Rocket Lab launch sites offering more than 130 launch opportunities each year, our customers enjoy unmatched control over their launch schedule and orbital requirements,” Beck said. “Rocket Lab has made frequent, reliable and responsive access to space the new normal for small satellites.”
The satellite assigned to launch on the first Electron flight from the United States is named Monolith. Managed by the Air Force Research Laboratory, Monolith will demonstrate the ability for small satellites to support large aperture payloads. In the case of Monolith, the Air Force wants to test a space weather instrument package, according to Air Force Lt. Col. Meagan Thrush, program element monitor for space launch and control.
The STP-27RM mission with the Monolith microsatellite is an extension of the Air Force’s Rapid Agile Launch Initiative, or RALI, program. The Air Force established the RALI program to procure launch services more quickly and at lower cost than through the military’s traditional launch acquisition schemes.
Rocket Lab’s two-stage Electron launcher stands around 55 feet (17 meters) tall and measures 3.9 feet (1.2 meters) in diameter. Powered by 3D-printed Rutherford engines, the kerosene-fueled rocket can lift up to 330 pounds of payload into a 310-mile-high (500-kilometer) polar sun-synchronous orbit.
A dedicated Electron launch sells for as low as $7 million, significantly lower than the price of flights on larger rockets. The Electron is designed to give small satellites their own ride into orbit. Before smallsat launch companies like Rocket Lab, CubeSats and microsatellites typically launched as secondary payloads, with their orbital destinations and launch schedules at the whim of the demands of a larger mission.
“Launch Complex 2 gives us the capability to support directly a wide variety of government and commercial missions,” Beck said. “The launch site is primarily being designed to support government missions with additional security and capabilities, but LC-1 will remain our high-volume launch site for a majority of commercial missions.”
(https://mk0spaceflightnoa02a.kinstacdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/rocketlab_mission3.jpg)
File photo of an Electron launch from New Zealand. Credit: Trevor Mahlmann/Rocket Lab
“Rocket Lab’s launch site at the Mid Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island, Virginia, strengthens the United States’ ability to provide responsive and reliable access to space,” said Col. Robert Bongiovi, director of the launch enterprise directorate at the Air Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center. “We look forward to Rocket Lab successfully launching the STP-27RM mission from Launch Complex 2 next spring, which will test new capabilities that we will need in the future.”
Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 2 facility is located at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, adjacent to pad 0A used to launch Northrop Grumman’s Antares rockets on resupply missions to the International Space Station.
The Antares launcher is more than twice the height of Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket, but Rocket Lab’s launch manifest projections suggest the Electron will fly from Wallops much more often than the Antares’ regular launch cadence of two flights per year.
The Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport is run by the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority, or Virginia Space, an organization created by the Virginia legislature to promote commercial space activity within the commonwealth. The spaceport now has three orbital-class launch facilities, one for Rocket Lab, one for the Antares rocket, and another used to launch solid-fueled Minotaur boosters.
Rocket Lab says construction of Launch Complex 2, which sits inside the perimeter fence of the Antares launch pad, started in February and was completed in 10 months. The new pad is designed to support up to 12 launches per year, including “rapid call-up” missions, giving the military a quick-response launch option, according to Rocket Lab.
Officials Thursday did not define whether the rapid call-up capability would mean Electron launches within days, weeks or months of tasking by the U.S. military.
Engineers developed the new launch pad based on the design of Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 1 facility in New Zealand, with a few upgrades to make it easier to maintain and operate.
“I know we set a U.S. (speed) record for building a launch pad , and I suspect a world record,” said Dale Nash, CEO and executive director of Virginia Space. “It is smaller than launch pad A (used for Antares), but it’s really not any less complex.”
One of the differences between Rocket Lab’s launch pad in New Zealand and the one in Virginia is in the launch mount.
“The launch mount itself in New Zealand will roll,” Nash said Thursday. “Here, it doesn’t. The rocket will roll on and roll off. The Integration and Control Facility, where they will process the rockets, is built so that you never have to lift the rocket. It can roll from the processing (facility) into the trailer, go out to the pad and stand up.”
“The opening of Launch Complex 2 is a significant milestone and a remarkable achievement made possible by the strong partnership with Rocket Lab and NASA,” Nash said in a statement. “Almost immediately after Rocket Lab’s selection of MARS as its U.S. launch site, engineers, managers and technicians worked tirelessly together across multiple time zones and two continents to make LC-2 a reality.”
“The fact that we have an operational launch site less than a year after construction began is testament to the hard work and dedication of the Virginia Space and NASA teams, as well as the unwavering support of our local suppliers,” said Shaun D’Mello, Rocket Lab’s vice president of launch.
(https://mk0spaceflightnoa02a.kinstacdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/48982930181_eb251c2556_k.jpg)
This Oct. 29 image of a Northrop Grumman Antares rocket on pad 0A at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport shows the black strongback structure at Rocket Lab’s neighboring Launch Complex 2 facility. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
Rocket Lab launched six missions in 2019, and officials aim to achieve a more rapid launch cadence next year, with launches as often as every two weeks.
“This year, Electron was the fourth-most frequently launched vehicle in the world,” Beck said. “We’ve delivered 47 satellites to orbit so far, so we’re really excited to increase this cadence and this history here at LC-2.”
The company says more than 150 local construction workers and contractors were involved in the development of Launch Complex 2 in Virginia. The 66-ton launch platform and 7.6-ton strongback were supplied by Steel America, a Virginia-based company.
Rocket Lab’s Integration and Control Facility, or ICF, at the nearby Wallops Research Park will support payload and launch vehicle processing before liftoff. The processing facility will also be home to a launch control center and office space.
Up to four Electron rockets will be housed at the ICF at one time, D’Mello said. The rockets will initially be transported to Wallops from Rocket Lab’s factory in Auckland, New Zealand, and future vehicles will be shipped from the company’s plant in Huntington Beach, California, as production ramps up there.
“We will then be able to have Electrons in standby, truly ready for their call to orbit on a short and responsive notice,” D’Mello said.
The company says it expects to employ up to 30 people at the Virginia launch site in engineering, launch safety and administrative positions in the coming year.
With the launch pad construction complete, teams at Wallops are beginning checkouts and testing ahead of the first Electron launch campaign. One of the first tests will involve flowing super-cold fluid through the launch pad’s plumbing to verify it can handle cryogenic propellants used by the Electron rocket.
“We are going to go into the cryo shock (testing), meaning we will chill the system down beginning with liquid nitrogen next week,” Nash said. “You learn what works and what doesn’t. Hopefully, there are not many things that don’t.”
Source: https://spaceflightnow.com/2019/12/12/rocket-lab-to-debut-virginia-launch-pad-with-u-s-air-force-mission-next-year/
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Rocket Lab to build second launch pad in New Zealand
by Jeff Foust — December 18, 2019 [SN]
(https://spacenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/rocketlab-lc1b.jpg)
An illustration of Rocket Lab's Launch Complex 1, with the new Pad B placed between the existing Pad A (left) and the vehicle integration facility. Credit: Rocket Lab
TITUSVILLE, Fla. — Just days after marking the completion of a new launch site in Virginia, Rocket Lab announced Dec. 18 that it has started work on a second pad at its original launch site in New Zealand.
The company said it recently started construction of Launch Complex (LC) 1 Pad B, a second pad at its site on New Zealand’s Mahia Peninsula where it also has payload processing and vehicle integration facilities. The new pad is scheduled to become operational by late 2020.
In an interview, Rocket Lab Chief Executive Peter Beck said the decision to build the second pad was driven by an anticipated increase in its launch rate. The company carried out six launches of its Electron rocket in 2019 but expects to launch once a month in 2020 and eventually increase to weekly launches.
“The additional pad really gives us the capacity to get down to one launch every week, which is what we’ve always been driving to,” he said. The company current spends about four weeks to recycle the pad between launches, which he said can be shortened to two.
The additional pad also means the company can maintain a steady cadence of launches even while doing maintenance on one of the two pads. “It just gives us a lot of flexibility,” he said. “We can be processing one rocket on one pad while the other pad is being serviced.”
It also fits into an emphasis the company has made on responsive launch, which drove the development of Launch Complex 2 on Wallops Island, Virginia, that the company formally opened Dec. 12. “What we’re finding is that customers have late-changing requirements, so it gives us the flexibility, if a customer is going to be late, that we can get the next customer off quickly without cascading effects on the manifest,” he said.
Pad B will be based on the design of the existing pad at LC-1 as well as the new one just completed at LC-2 in Virginia, with minor changes. “We’re rolling in all the improvements from LC-2 into LC-1B,” he said. “They’ll all look the same, but there will be subtle things to make them easier to maintain.”
Beck has previously said building launch pads is one of the hardest things the company has done. “After we finished building Launch Complex 1, Shaun and I sat down and said, ‘Let’s never do that again,’” he said at the LC-2 event Dec. 12, recalling a conversation with Shaun D’Mello, the company’s vice president for launch. “I think most people don’t realize how complex launch pads are.”
“The team that finished building out LC-2 are getting bored, so they need another pad,” Beck joked in the interview. “They’re not fun things to build, but the plan here with LC-1 was always to have multiple pads, so we’re just moving out on our original plan.”
Source: https://spacenews.com/rocket-lab-to-build-second-launch-pad-in-new-zealand/
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Rocket Lab kicks off busy year with NRO launch
by Jeff Foust — January 31, 2020 [SN]
(https://spacenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/rocketlab-nrol151.jpg)
A Rocket Lab Electron rocket lifts off Jan. 30 carrying a National Reconnaissance Office payload. Credit: Rocket Lab
WASHINGTON — Rocket Lab successfully launched a classified payload for the National Reconnaissance Office Jan. 30 in the first of up to a dozen launches planned by the company this year.
Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket lifted off from the company’s launch site on New Zealand’s Mahia Peninsula at 9:56 p.m. Eastern. The launch, dubbed “Birds of a Feather” by Rocket Lab, was the 11th mission for the Electron rocket and its first launch of 2020.
“Starting our 2020 launch manifest with a successful mission for the NRO is an immensely proud moment for our team. It once again demonstrated our commitment to providing responsive, dedicated access to space for government small satellites,” Peter Beck, chief executive of Rocket Lab, said in a statement.
The rocket was carrying a payload for the NRO designated NROL-151. The agency procured the launch through its Rapid Acquisition of a Small Rocket, or RASR, program, which it started in 2018 to procure small launch vehicles responsively. This launch was the first under the RASR program.
Neither Rocket Lab nor the NRO released details about the payload, including whether it was one or more satellites or their purpose. Amateur satellite observers noted the mission appeared to be going into a high inclination orbit of about 70 degrees, but not a sun-synchronous orbit commonly used by Earth observation missions.
The NRO released a logo for the mission prior to the launch that drew comparisons online to those of the Milwaukee Bucks basketball team and Jägermeister liquor. The logo is adorned with good luck charms like a horseshoe, four-leaf clover and wishbone. The NRO said in a tweet that the logo was “a light-hearted way to wish #NROL151 good fortune & luck on its mission.”
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EPXa_lyX0AEKpVx?format=png&name=small)
NRO@NatReconOfc 12:46 PM - Jan 28, 2020
For almost 6 decades, the NRO has answered the hardest national security questions w/ bold, innovative technology, & #NROL151 stands firm in this tradition. The logo is a light-hearted way to wish #NROL151 good fortune & luck on its mission. Launch date is Jan. 31 (NZDT).
Twitter (https://twitter.com/NatReconOfc/status/1222123665782865922?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1222123665782865922&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fspacenews.com%2Frocket-lab-kicks-off-busy-year-with-nro-launch%2F)
Rocket Lab also used the launch to further its efforts to recover and reuse the Electron first stage. The company said that, was with the previous Electron launch in December, the first stage survived reentry and remained intact until it hit the ocean.
In a December interview, Beck said that, after this test, the company would “go quiet” for a few months in its reusability efforts as it makes another block upgrade for the rocket to incorporate parachutes and other changes for recovering the stage. “The next step is to splash it down into the water gently, and then the step after that is to recover it in mid-air with a helicopter,” he said then.
This launch was the first of up to a dozen the company expects to carry out this year. That will include the first launch from the company’s Launch Complex 2 at Wallops Island, Virginia. That launch, carrying a U.S. Air Force research and development smallsat called Monolith on a mission designated STP-27RM, is scheduled for the second quarter of 2020.
Rocket Lab is also building a second launch pad in New Zealand, which will be ready by late this year, the company announced in December. The company announced Jan. 14 it is constructing a new headquarters and factory in Long Beach, California, that will be able to produce 12 or more Electron rockets a year, while adding a second mission control center.
In addition to its launch vehicle efforts, the company is working on a satellite bus called Photon based on the kick stage of the Electron rocket. In a Jan. 29 presentation at the 23rd Annual Commercial Space Transportation Conference here, Shane Fleming, vice president of global commercial launch services at Rocket Lab, said that first Photon mission should take place this year. “We’re very excited to have our first Rocket Lab satellite on orbit,” he said.
Source: https://spacenews.com/rocket-lab-kicks-off-busy-year-with-nro-launch/
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Rocket Lab launch preparations continue despite coronavirus travel restrictions
by Jeff Foust — March 20, 2020 [SN]
(https://spacenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/rsz_nasas_award_follows_trisepts_successful_launch_integration_for_the_nasa_vcls_elana_xix_mission_aboard_a_rocket_lab_electron_in_december_of_last_year_photo_credit_trevor_mahlmann_3-879x485.jpg)
Rocket Lab says its next Electron launch is still on track for late March despite new restrictions on travel into New Zealand because of the coronavirus pandemic. Credit: Trevor Mahlmann
WASHINGTON — Rocket Lab is continuing with preparations for a launch later this month despite the coronavirus pandemic, although another small launch company’s plans for a launch this month remain unclear.
Rocket Lab spokesperson Morgan Bailey said March 19 that the company was still planning to launch an Electron rocket from New Zealand later this month. The launch is currently scheduled for no earlier than March 30, a few days later originally announced.
That mission, called “Don’t Stop Me Now” by the company, will carry three payloads for the National Reconnaissance Office. It will also place into orbit ANDESITE, a cubesat built by students at Boston University and whose launch is being provided by NASA, as well as a cubesat from the University of New South Wales in Australia.
The launch is proceeding despite an order by New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to close the country’s borders to those who are not citizens or residents of the country, effective March 20. The move is intended to stem the growth of cases of the coronavirus disease COVID-19, which reached 39 in New Zealand as of March 20.
Bailey said the launch teams, as well as all the payloads for the mission, are already at the company’s Launch Complex 1. Payload integration and a wet dress rehearsal of the rocket are scheduled for early next week.
Rocket Lab hasn’t disclosed if the pandemic and restrictions on travel will affect future launches, either in New Zealand or the United States. The company had been planning its first Electron launch from Launch Complex 2 at Wallops Island, Virginia, for the second quarter of this year.
The status of another potential launch of a small launch vehicle remains uncertain. Astra requested airspace restrictions and ocean hazard zones for a launch between March 23 and March 27 from the Pacific Spaceport Complex – Alaska on Kodiak Island. A launch window is open each day from 3:30 to 7 p.m. Eastern.
“Since the second launch campaign of the DARPA Launch Challenge did not materialize, Astra has requested to conduct the same flight without DARPA sponsorship within the requested March window,” a memo from the Alaska Aerospace Corporation, which operates the launch site, states. That memo is included in a U.S. Coast Guard “Local Notice to Mariners” report (https://www.navcen.uscg.gov/pdf/lnms/lnm17112020.pdf) published March 18.
The Federal Aviation Administration has published a Notice to Airmen, or NOTAM, for launch activities from that site for March 24 and 25. An earlier NOTAM for a March 23 launch was no longer active as of March 19.
Astra has not commented on its launch plans publicly, and the company did not respond to requests for comment March 19. The company has made no public announcements since its last launch attempt at the end of the DARPA Launch Challenge was scrubbed March 2 (https://spacenews.com/darpa-launch-challenge-ends-without-winner/) because of what the company called “off-nominal” data from the vehicle detected less than a minute before scheduled liftoff.
At the time of that scrub, Astra projected trying again later in the month. “That is probably not a day or two. It’s more like a week or two,” Chris Kemp, chief executive of Astra, said in a post-scrub media teleconference of the timeframe of the next launch. “It’s certainly not a month or two.” That would also allow the company to replace the DARPA-supplied payload with one from an unidentified customer.
Astra’s plans may be complicated by travel restrictions in California. The company’s headquarters, which includes a launch control center, is in Alameda, California, a city located in one of the six San Francisco Bay Area counties that instituted “shelter in place” restrictions March 17 to limit the spread of COVID-19. That allowed only “essential” businesses to continue operations.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an order March 19 extending those restrictions statewide, effective immediately. That order does allow work to continue at companies considered part of “federal critical infrastructure sectors.” One of those sectors, “critical manufacturing,” includes aerospace products and parts manufacturing.
Source: https://spacenews.com/rocket-lab-launch-preparations-continue-despite-coronavirus-travel-restrictions/
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Rocket Lab launches NRO, university payloads
by Jeff Foust — June 13, 2020 [SN]
(https://spacenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/electron-june2020-879x485.jpg)
A Rocket Lab Electron lifts off from the company's New Zealand launch site June 13. Credit: Rocket Lab
WASHINGTON — A Rocket Lab Electron rocket successfully launched a set of payloads for the National Reconnaissance Office and two universities June 13 on a mission delayed two and a half months by the coronavirus pandemic.
The Electron lifted off from the company’s Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand at 1:12 a.m. Eastern. The company confirmed a little more than an hour later that all five payloads on the rocket had been successfully deployed in a “perfect orbit,” according to a tweet by Peter Beck, chief executive of the company.
The primary payloads on the Electron were three small satellites for the NRO, details about which, including their missions, sizes or even names, neither the company nor the agency disclosed. The launch was arranged through an NRO contract called Rapid Acquisition of a Small Rocket (RASR) intended for streamlined acquisition of launch services. Rocket Lab’s previous launch, in January, was a dedicated mission for the NRO (https://spacenews.com/rocket-lab-kicks-off-busy-year-with-nro-launch/).
The Electron also carried two university cubesats. One, Ad-Hoc Network Demonstration for Extended Satellite-Based Inquiry and Other Team Endeavors (ANDESITE), was built by students at Boston University to study the Earth’s magnetic fields. Its launch was arranged by NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative. The other, M2 Pathfinder, was built at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) Canberra in cooperation with the Australian government to study communications technologies.
“Missions like this one are testament to the flexibility we offer small satellite operators through our ability to deploy multiple payloads to precise and individual orbits on the same launch,” Beck said in a post-launch statement. “This collaborative mission was also a great demonstration of Rocket Lab’s capability in meeting the unique national security needs of the NRO, while on the same mission making space easy and accessible for educational payloads from NASA and UNSW Canberra.”
The mission, the 12th for the Electron, was called “Don’t Stop Me Now” by the company but was, in fact, stopped for months by the coronavirus pandemic. The company originally scheduled the launch for late March but postponed it because of restrictions on activities in New Zealand (https://spacenews.com/rocket-lab-postpones-launch-because-of-coronavirus-pandemic/) intended to slow the spread of COVID-19.
Those efforts have been remarkably successful in the country, eradicating the disease there. The New Zealand government has now lifted most restrictions, allowing the company to proceed with launch activities. Rocket Lab rescheduled the launch for June 11, but high winds at the launch site scrubbed the attempt, and the company rescheduled for June 13.
Rocket Lab says it has now resumed full production of Electron rockets as well as its new Photon small satellite bus. The company has not yet disclosed a launch date or customer for its next launch from New Zealand, but said it is planning its first launch from Launch Complex 2 at Wallops Island, Virginia, for the third quarter of this year.
Source: https://spacenews.com/rocket-lab-launches-nro-university-payloads/
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University-built CubeSat launched with swarm of auroral science nodes
June 13, 2020 Stephen Clark
(https://mk0spaceflightnoa02a.kinstacdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/rocketlab_4.jpg)
Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket climbs away from a launch base in New Zealand Saturday. Credit: Rocket Lab
Rocket Lab successfully launched five small satellites from New Zealand Saturday for customers in the United States and Australia, including a CubeSat with a novel swarm of tiny magnetometers to measure the plasma currents that shape colorful auroras.
The 55-foot-tall (17-meter) rocket took off at 0512:12 GMT (1:12:12 a.m. EDT) from Rocket Lab’s privately-operated spaceport on Mahia Peninsula, located on the eastern coast of New Zealand’s North Island.
(...)
Source: https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/06/13/university-built-cubesat-launched-with-swarm-of-auroral-science-nodes/
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Orionidzie, dwa ostatnie artykuły nie dotyczą amerykańskiego stanowiska startowego. Start odbył się z Nowej Zelandii:
http://www.forum.kosmonauta.net/index.php?topic=4017.msg147076#msg147076
Może warto zmienić tytuł całego wątku?
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Orionidzie, dwa ostatnie artykuły nie dotyczą amerykańskiego stanowiska startowego. Start odbył się z Nowej Zelandii:
http://www.forum.kosmonauta.net/index.php?topic=4017.msg147076#msg147076
Może warto zmienić tytuł całego wątku?
Ujednoznaczniłem dwa ostatnie posty.
Zmiana tytułu wątku może się wiązać ze zbyt dużym podobieństwem z nazwą samego wątku tematycznego.
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No to może lepiej stworzyć nowy wątek pt [SN] Rocket Lab launches NRO, university payloads ? (może jeszcze z datą w tytule wątku)?
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No to może lepiej stworzyć nowy wątek pt [SN] Rocket Lab launches NRO, university payloads ? (może jeszcze z datą w tytule wątku)?
Wg mnie za dużo wątków się może namnożyć dla Rocket Lab.
Jest dodatkowo jeszcze jeden wątek w AA związany z tą firmą:
https://www.forum.kosmonauta.net/index.php?topic=3952.msg141711#msg141711
W postach startowych i ewentualnie innych jest odwołanie to odpowiednich AA.
Wydaje mi się, że Tematyczny Spis Treści (TSR) w miejscu poświęconym Rocket Lab powinien multitematyczność wątku w AA uporządkować.
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W postach startowych i ewentualnie innych jest odwołanie to odpowiednich AA.
Wydaje mi się, że Tematyczny Spis Treści (TSR) w miejscu poświęconym Rocket Lab powinien multitematyczność wątku w AA uporządkować.
Daj znać, gdy będzie to gotowe! :)
Pytanie czy nie warto kilka takich właśnie postów z artykułami wrzucić do innych wątków niż w tym. Jak uważasz?
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Rocket Lab Electron launch fails
by Jeff Foust — July 4, 2020 Updated 6:15 p.m. Eastern.
(https://spacenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/electron-july2020.jpg)
Electron launch July 2020
A Rocket Lab Electron rocket lifts off July 4 from New Zealand. The launch failed because of a problem with the rocket's second stage. Credit: Rocket Lab webcast
WASHINGTON — A Rocket Lab Electron rocket failed to reach orbit during a July 4 launch after a problem during the rocket’s second-stage burn.
The Electron rocket lifted off from the company’s Launch Complex 1 at Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand, at 5:19 p.m. Eastern. The launch was originally scheduled for July 3 but pushed back two days because of poor weather in the forecast, only for the company to move up the launch to July 4 based on a reassessment of the weather.
The initial phases of the launch appeared to go as planned, although the vehicle’s passage through “max-q,” or maximum dynamic pressure, appeared to be rougher than what was seen in previous launches. Onboard video taken shortly before first-stage separation showed material appearing to peel from the rocket, although it was not clear if it simply a decal applied to the rocket or something more substantial.
The onboard video from the rocket froze about five minutes and 45 seconds after liftoff, or three minutes into the seconds stage burn. At six and a half minutes after liftoff, a launch controller on the company’s webcast of the launch said, “Initiating mishap response plan.”
Telemetry from the rocket, displayed on the webcast, showed the rocket’s altitude falling from about 194 kilometers to less than 165 kilometers for about 90 seconds before that information was removed from the screen. The company ended the webcast 11 minutes after liftoff, two minutes after the rocket’s second stage should have shut down and the kick stage, carrying its payload of seven satellites, deployed.
“An issue was experienced today during Rocket Lab’s launch that caused the loss of the vehicle. We are deeply sorry to the customers on board Electron,” the company tweeted (https://twitter.com/RocketLab/status/1279531664759091200) about 25 minutes after liftoff. “The issue occurred late in the flight during the 2nd stage burn. More information will be provided as it becomes available.”
“We lost the flight late into the mission. I am incredibly sorry that we failed to deliver our customers satellites today,” Peter Beck, chief executive of Rocket Lab, tweeted after the failure (https://twitter.com/Peter_J_Beck/status/1279532331838009345). “Rest assured we will find the issue, correct it and be back on the pad soon.”
The launch was the 13th for the Electron rocket. The vehicle had 11 consecutive successful launches after the rocket’s inaugural launch in May 2017 was terminated because of a telemetry issue involving range safety systems, and not a problem with the rocket itself.
The primary payload for the launch was CE-SAT-1B, a 67-kilogram imaging satellite built by Canon Electronics, whose launch was arranged by Spaceflight Inc. The satellite, capable of taking images with a resolution of 90 centimeters, was intended to demonstrate the spacecraft’s technologies as the company prepared mass production of similar satellites.
“This launch is very critical for Canon Electronics as we are launching a satellite where we have remarkably increased the ratio of in-house development of components compared to the previous launch,” said Nobutada Sako, group executive of the Satellite Systems Lab at Canon Electronics said in a pre-launch release. Canon launched a similar satellite, CE-SAT-1, in 2017.
The rocket carried five SuperDove imaging cubesats developed by Planet. These satellites are upgraded versions of its original Dove line of cubesats, with additional spectral bands to support geospatial applications in fields like architecture.
The seventh satellite on the Electron was Faraday-1, a six-unit cubesat developed by British startup In-Space Missions. The satellite is the first in a series by the company designed to carry hosted payloads. Faraday-1 included payloads for several customers such Airbus Defence and Space, which flew a payload called Prometheus 1 to test a reprogrammable software-defined radio.
This mission, dubbed “Pics or It Didn’t Happen” by Rocket Lab, featured the shortest turnaround time between Electron missions to date. The previous Electron launch, which carried three National Reconnaissance Office satellites and smallsats for American and Australian universities, launched June 13.
After a halt in launch activity caused by the coronavirus pandemic, Rocket Lab had planned to ramp up its launch activity in the second half of the year. The next mission after this was to take place with an even shorter turnaround, Beck said in a June 18 interview (https://spacenews.com/rocket-lab-wins-nro-contracts-for-back-to-back-launches/). The company was also looking ahead to a first Electron launch from Launch Complex 2 in Virginia that, prior to this failure, was expected to take place before the end of the summer.
Source: https://spacenews.com/rocket-lab-electron-launch-fails/
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Rocket Lab returns to flight with Capella Space launch
by Jeff Foust — August 31, 2020
(https://spacenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/electron-flight14-2.jpg)
A Rocket Lab Electron lifts off Aug. 30 carrying a Capella Space radar imaging satellite on the rocket's first flight since a July 4 launch failure. Credit: Rocket Lab
WASHINGTON — Rocket Lab successfully launched a radar imaging satellite for Capella Space Aug. 30 in the first flight of its Electron rocket since a failure nearly two months earlier.
The Electron lifted off from the company’s Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand at 11:05 p.m. Eastern. It deployed its payload, the Sequoia radar imaging satellite for Capella Space, about an hour after liftoff into a 500-kilometer orbit at a 45-degree inclination.
The launch, called “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Optical” by the company, was the first for the small launch vehicle since a failed mission July 4. On that earlier launch, the rocket’s upper-stage engine shut down nearly six minutes after liftoff, preventing its payload from reaching orbit.
A subsequent investigation concluded that an “anomalous electrical connection” in the upper stage caused a loss of power in many systems (https://spacenews.com/rocket-lab-blames-electron-launch-failure-on-electrical-problem/), including the electric turbopumps that power the engine. The problem with the connection was not seen in earlier flights and also was not detected during acceptance testing on the ground.
“I liken it to stacking up 20 slices of Swiss cheese and having all the holes line up perfectly,” Peter Beck, chief executive of Rocket Lab, said of the failure in a pre-launch interview.
Rocket Lab changed its testing procedures to be able to catch the problem before the launch. The company also used the investigation to revise other vehicle development processes. “We made quite a few changes to system processes and quality checks,” he said. “There’s no hardware changes, but certainly we’ve added some quality improvements. The vehicle coming up the line now will be even more reliable than vehicles prior to it.”
With the return to flight of Electron successfully completed, the company’s next major milestone is to perform its first launch from Launch Complex 2 in Virginia. Rocket Lab previously estimated that the launch would take place about a month after the return-to-flight mission.
Beck said in the interview that the schedule is pending approval by NASA, which operates the Wallops Flight Facility where the new launch site is located, of the vehicle’s autonomous flight termination system. “There’s a very long certification process that, quite frankly, we probably underestimated how long it would take,” he said.
Everything needed for the launch from Virginia, including the vehicle and payload, are ready, he said. “It’s difficult to predict when the certification will be complete,” he said. “We’re 100% ready to fly other than the paperwork.”
The payload on this launch, Sequoia, is the first operational satellite for Capella Space, a startup developing a constellation of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites to provide high-resolution imagery. The “100-kilogram-class” satellite, which follows a demonstration satellite called Denali launched in late 2018, is designed to produce SAR imagery with a resolution as sharp as 0.5 meters.
Capella Space previously planned to launch Sequoia as a secondary payload on the Falcon 9 launch of Argentina’s SAOCOM 1B, a larger radar imaging satellite, in March. However, the coronavirus pandemic and the disruptions it caused for international travel forced a delay in the SAOCOM 1B launch.
Capella, which purchased an Electron launch earlier in the year for a future satellite, elected to use that contract for the launch of Sequoia because of the uncertainty of when SAOCOM 1B would launch. By chance, SAOCOM 1B launched on a Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral, Florida, less than four hours before the Electron launch (https://spacenews.com/spacex-launches-argentine-radar-satellite-rideshare-smallsats-on-falcon-9-rocket/).
Source: https://spacenews.com/rocket-lab-returns-to-flight-with-capella-space-launch/
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Rocket Lab launches first Photon satellite
by Jeff Foust — September 3, 2020
(https://spacenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/photon-firstlight-879x485.jpg)
An image taken from First Light, the first Rocket Lab Photon satellite placed in orbit during an Electron launch Aug. 30. Credit: Rocket Lab
WASHINGTON — Rocket Lab announced Sept. 3 that it has placed its first Photon satellite into orbit, demonstrating the spacecraft’s technologies and the company’s ability to provide end-to-end space solutions.
The satellite, called “First Light,” was launched as the kick stage of the Electron rocket that placed Capella Space’s Sequoia radar imaging satellite into orbit Aug. 30. Once the kick stage released Sequoia, controllers sent commands to place the stage into “Photon satellite mode,” turning the stage into an operational satellite.
“This is our very first Rocket Lab-built and -designed satellite,” Peter Beck, Rocket Lab chief executive, said in a call with reporters. “For the first time we are a complete end-to-end service.”
First Light is intended as a technology demonstration, testing key subsystems such as power, thermal management and attitude control. “We wanted to prove out all the things that didn’t have flight heritage,” he said. It also carries what he called a “pretty sweet camera” that has provided images of the spacecraft and the Earth.
The spacecraft will be on orbit for five to six years. Besides testing spacecraft technologies, First Light will also be available for potential customers to try out.
The company did not announce in advance plans to test Photon on this latest launch, which also served as the return to flight of the Electron after a launch failure in early July. “I kind of like to do stuff and make sure it works before announcing it,” he said.
More Photons that will primarily demonstrate the spacecraft’s capabilities will launch before flying customers, Beck said. “We’re developing a whole cadre of tech demos,” he said that will be flown on upcoming Electron missions. He suggested the first operational Photon mission would be the launch of NASA’s CAPSTONE cubesat to lunar orbit early next year.
Rocket Lab announced Photon in April 2019. The company said that, by offering customers a proven satellite bus based on the Electron’s kick stage, those customers could focus on developing their payloads, rather than also work on a satellite bus.
“You can use not only a proven launch vehicle but a proven spacecraft platform, so you’re not taking any development time or risk in getting your idea into orbit,” Beck said in an interview at the time the company announced Photon (https://spacenews.com/rocket-lab-unveils-photon-smallsat-bus/). Space startups, he said, often struggle with satellite development. “They’re trying to provide a data service but they have to go through all the learning of developing their own satellite, rather than get straight to revenue.”
Beck reiterated that in the call with reporters about the Photon launch. Potential customers include those who want to get flight experience with a payload quickly, or those who prefer a turnkey solution that includes the satellite bus, launch and ground stations. Beck noted that Photon’s propulsion system offers “incredibly high delta V,” or change in velocity, which has attracted interest from government agencies.
The goal of the overall effort, is “not to build a platform that limits it to a narrow group of missions” but instead one that is versatile. “It’s something best in class that covers a wide variety of missions.”
Beck said that the company has been working with a “select group” of customers while developing Photon, but did not name any of them. “The interest in Photon and the capability it represents is enormous,” he argued. He also declined to state how much the company has spent on Photon.
Over time, the revenue the Photon satellite program could rival that from the Electron rocket, he said, a diversification essential to stand out in a crowded market. “We’ve got a great launch business,” he said, “but in 2020 and onwards, you can’t just be a launch company.”
Source: https://spacenews.com/rocket-lab-launches-first-photon-satellite/
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Rocket Lab launches 10 imaging smallsats
by Jeff Foust — October 29, 2020 [SN]
(https://spacenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/electron-infocus-879x485.jpg)
A Rocket Lab Electron rocket lifts off from the company's Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand Oct. 28. Credit: Rocket Lab
WASHINGTON — A Rocket Lab Electron rocket successfully placed 10 satellites into orbit for two customers who lost payloads on a launch failure earlier this year.
The Electron rocket lifted off from the company’s launch site on New Zealand’s Mahia Peninsula at 5:21 p.m. Eastern Oct. 28. The rocket’s kick stage deployed its payload of 10 satellites into a 500-kilometer sun-synchronous orbit about an hour later.
The primary payload on the launch, called “In Focus” by Rocket Lab, was a set of nine SuperDove cubesats for Planet, augmenting that company’s constellation of imaging satellites. The other payload was CE-SAT-2B, an imaging microsatellite developed by Canon Electronics as a technology demonstration for future satellites and whose flight was arranged by launch services company Spaceflight.
Both Planet and Canon had payloads on Rocket Lab’s Electron launch failure in July, which also carried a satellite for British company In-Space Missions. Rocket Lab blamed that failure on an “anomalous electrical connection” in the rocket’s upper stage that had slipped through quality control checks, and the company returned the Electron to flight Aug. 30 with the launch of a synthetic aperture radar satellite for Capella Space.
“Electron has once again delivered a smooth ride to orbit and precise deployment for our individual rideshare customers,” Peter Beck, chief executive of Rocket Lab, said in a statement after the launch.
The launch was the 15th flight of the Electron. Rocket Lab said in its statement that the next Electron launch will take place “in the coming weeks” from New Zealand. The company also has an Electron waiting for launch at its new Launch Complex 2 on Wallops Island, Virginia, but has not disclosed a date for that launch.
The launch, like others by the U.S.-headquartered Rocket Lab, was licensed by the Federal Aviation Administration. During an Oct. 27 panel discussion at the American Astronautical Society’s Wernher von Braun Memorial Symposium, Wayne Monteith, associate administrator for commercial space transportation at the FAA, noted that the Rocket Lab launch would set a record for the most FAA-licensed launches in a month at six. The other launches in October include three SpaceX Falcon 9 launches, a Northrop Grumman Antares launch and a suborbital launch by Blue Origin’s New Shepard.
The previous record of five licensed launches in a month was set just two months earlier. August also saw three Falcon 9 launches and an Electron launch, along with a “hop” test of a SpaceX Starship prototype performed under an FAA license.
Both records are signs of surging commercial launch activity, Monteith argued. “We have already in the FAA licensed more launches in this fiscal year than we did in fiscal year ’09, ’10, ’11 or ’12,” he said. The current fiscal year started Oct. 1.
Source: https://spacenews.com/rocket-lab-launches-10-imaging-smallsats/
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First Rocket Lab U.S. launch delayed to 2021
by Jeff Foust — November 14, 2020 [SN]
(https://spacenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/electron-lc2-879x485.jpg)
A Rocket Lab Electron during tests earlier this year at its LC-2 launch site at Wallops Island, Virginia. The rocket's first launch is now scheduled for no earlier than the first half of 2021. Credit: Rocket Lab
WASHINGTON — The first launch of Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket from a site in the United States won’t take place until 2021 because of problems with the flight termination system NASA requires the rocket to use.
Rocket Lab had planned to conduct the first launch from its Launch Complex (LC) 2 at Wallops Island, Virginia, this year. The company completed the launch site in December 2019, stating at the time it anticipated performing the first launch there, of a U.S. military Space Test Program mission called STP-27RM, in the second quarter of 2020.
Preparations for that launch were slowed by the pandemic, but Rocket Lab said in the spring it anticipated a launch in the fall. The company performed a dress rehearsal of the launch in the spring, including a static-fire test of the rocket’s nine first-stage engines.
One reason for the delay, Rocket Lab said, was that it was waiting on NASA to certify the autonomous flight termination system (AFTS) that will be used on the rocket to provide range safety. NASA controls the launch range at the Wallops Flight Facility, where LC-2 is located. “There’s a very long certification process that, quite frankly, we probably underestimated how long it would take,” Peter Beck, chief executive of Rocket Lab, said in an interview in August.
That certification process is ongoing. In a Nov. 10 talk at a Maryland Space Business Roundtable webinar, David Pierce, director of NASA Wallops, mentioned preparations for Rocket Lab’s first launch as part of an overview of the facility’s activities. “We’re really proud of our work with Rocket Lab,” he said. “We’re working really hard to support Rocket Lab with a launch in ’21.”
Asked later about the certification of the AFTS, Pierce said that engineers had kept on schedule with the development of the system into the summer despite the pandemic. “When they sent the unit out for review of the software, we found some errors,” he said. That review involved teams at NASA’s Katherine Johnson Independent Verification and Validation Facility, the Federal Aviation Administration, Vandenberg Air Force Base and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
Engineers are now working to address those problems, the number or severity of which he didn’t elaborate on. “We expect that, under the current rate in which we’re developing and correcting the code errors, we should be ready to certify that unit in the first half of ’21,” he said.
That unit, he added, will also be available to other companies launching from Wallops. “We’re in this for the long haul,” he said. “We recognize it’s a game-changing technology, so we want to do it and release it to private industry as soon as it’s safe to do so.”
Rocket Lab spokesperson Morgan Bailey confirmed Nov. 12 that completion of the AFTS is the final step before the company will be ready to launch from Wallops. “The launch vehicle and pad are ready for launch,” she said. “The final step is NASA certification of their AFTS and the timing for completion of that is being driven by NASA.”
Rocket Lab’s upcoming milestone is the company’s first attempt to recover the first stage of Electron after launch (https://spacenews.com/rocket-lab-to-attempt-electron-stage-recovery-on-next-launch/). That mission, called “Return to Sender,” is now scheduled for launch no earlier than Nov. 18 from the company’s LC-1 launch site in New Zealand.
The company plans to conduct recovery efforts, as part of its plans to reuse the Electron first stage, only at its New Zealand launch site initially. However, Beck said the company envisions eventually recovering first stages during launches from LC-2 as well.
“The plan is to work through all the initial recovery development down at LC-1 because it’s just a much easier range,” he said. “But once we get it all sorted, there’s no reason why we wouldn’t bring it to LC-2 as well.”
Source: https://spacenews.com/first-rocket-lab-u-s-launch-delayed-to-2021/
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Rocket Lab launches Electron in test of booster recovery
by Jeff Foust — November 19, 2020 [SN]
(https://spacenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/electron-16thlaunch-879x485.jpg)
A Rocket Lab Electron lifts off Nov. 19 on the company's "Return to Sender" mission, the first attempt by the company to recover the rocket's first stage. Credit: Rocket Lab webcast
WASHINGTON — Rocket Lab launched its Electron rocket Nov. 19, placing nearly 30 smallsats in orbit while making its first attempt to recover the rocket’s first stage.
The Electron lifted off from Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 1 on Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand, at 9:20 p.m. Eastern on a mission called “Return to Sender” by the company. The rocket’s kick stage deployed its payload of 29 smallsats into a 500-kilometer sun-synchronous orbit about an hour after liftoff.
Of greater interest to many, though, in the effort by Rocket Lab to recover the rocket’s first stage. The company announced Nov. 5 it would attempt to reenter the stage, deploy a drogue and main parachute, and then splash the stage down in the Pacific Ocean (https://spacenews.com/rocket-lab-to-attempt-electron-stage-recovery-on-next-launch/) about 400 kilometers downrange from the launch site.
“This is an all-up combined test, a conclusion of a number of tests that we’ve been doing,” Peter Beck, chief executive of Rocket Lab, said at a briefing to announce the recovery of the stage.
Initial indications were that the recovery demonstration went as expected, with the stage surviving reentry and deploying the drogue and main parachutes, Rocket Lab announced. It was not immediately clear what condition the stage was in after splashdown, though.
Rocket Lab announced last year that it would attempt to recover and reuse the first stage. Beck had originally dismissed any attempt to recover the stage because of its small size, but became convinced that it would be possible if the stage could survive going through what he dubbed “the wall” of reentry, slowing down the stage enough that parachutes could then deploy for the remaining phase of the descent.
The company tested various aspects of the recovery system separately, including guiding two stages through reentry and conducting tests of parachute deployment. This flight, though, was the first attempt to put the components together, allowing the stage to splash down at a speed of about 10 meters per second.
“A lot of it comes down to just the mass and size constraints we’re dealing with,” said Matt Darley, recovery systems manager at Rocket Lab, during a company webcast of the launch. Fitting the parachutes, reaction control system and other equipment needed for recovery in the limited volume available within the first stage “was probably our biggest challenge.”
Rocket Lab will use a ship to pull the stage out of the water and return it to land, where it will be studied back at the company’s factory. Beck said they did not attempt to perform a mid-air recovery of the first stage using a helicopter — something the company has demonstrated in drop tests earlier this year — because they didn’t know what condition the stage would be in.
The company pursued recovery and reuse of the first stage to enable it to increase its flight rate without having to scale up its factory. “Even if we get to use the stage just another single time, it has the effect of effectively doubling production,” Beck said earlier this month. “Even one reuse is a really huge advantage.”
The recovery effort overshadowed the launch itself, the 16th of the Electron rocket. It placed into orbit 24 Spacebee satellites, each 0.25U in size, by Swarm Technologies. The satellites are part of a constellation of ultimately 150 satellites that will provide internet of things services.
The Electron also carried two satellites for Unseenlabs, a French company developing a constellation to provide radiofrequency tracking of ships. The DRAGRACER mission by TriSept deployed two smallsats, one equipped with a tether to test a technology that could shorten its deorbiting time from several years to as little as 45 days. The APSS-1 cubesat built by students at the University of Auckland in New Zealand will study the Earth’s ionosphere.
Besides the 29 smallsats, the Electron carried an additional payload: a 3D-printed titanium mass simulator 15 centimeters tall in the form of a gnome, dubbed “Gnome Chompski” after a character in the “Half-Life” series of video games. The gnome, which will remain attached to the rocket’s kick stage, was funded by Gabe Newell, founder of video game company Valve Software.
Source: https://spacenews.com/rocket-lab-launches-electron-in-test-of-booster-recovery/
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Rocket Lab declares success in Electron rocket recovery
by Jeff Foust — November 24, 2020
(https://spacenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/eelctron-recovery-879x485.jpg)
The Electron first stage from Rocket Lab's latest launch being hauled onto a recovery ship after a reentry and splahsdown that the company said was a "complete success." Credit: Rocket Lab
WASHINGTON — Rocket Lab says its attempt to recover the first stage from its latest Electron launch was a “complete success,” but that the company still has work to do before it’s ready to attempt to reuse the stage.
On Rocket Lab’s latest launch Nov. 19, the rocket’s first stage made a controlled reentry after stage separation, then released a drogue and a main parachute before splashing down about 400 kilometers downrange from its New Zealand launch site, where it was recovered by a boat.
The recovery itself went as planned. “The test was a complete success,” Peter Beck, chief executive of Rocket Lab, said in a call with reporters Nov. 23. “The stage splashed down completely intact. What it proved to us is that this is a feasible approach, and we’re really confident that we can make Electron a reusable launch vehicle from here.”
The various steps in that reentry process went as expected, with the stage splashing down at the targeted location and at a speed of nine meters per second. The biggest problem, he said, were rough seas that created a “pretty tough recovery operation” of the stage after splashdown.
That stage is now back in Rocket Lab’s factory, where engineers, he said, “are really just starting to dissect everything.” That includes removing individual components for testing and, in some cases, requalifying them for flight on later launches.
One area of improvement, he acknowledged, is the thermal protection system at the base of the stage. “We knew that the thermal protection system on the vehicle was not perfect because we didn’t have the data,” he said. During reentry “it got pretty roasty down there, as we kind of expected.” That included heat shield panels that were blown out, exposing the engines.
Rocket Lab will fold those and other improvements into the next recovery test, which Beck said will take place on an Electron launch in early 2021. That will be similar to this one in that the stage will splash down and be recovered by a boat for testing. That will continue, he said, until the recovered stages are in “premium condition,” at which point it will shift to midair recovery of the stages using a helicopter.
Once stages are recovered in midair, Rocket Lab will be ready to start reusing them. Beck said the company hoped to be able to do so before the end of 2021, although some launches next year will include components that first flew on this and other recovered stages. “It’s probably a little bit early to predict” when the first reused stage will launch, he said, “but we’d certainly would love to try to get a whole stage next year.”
Beck predicted the company would fly a mix of expendable and reusable missions, even after Rocket Lab demonstrates reusability. Most of the changes needed for recovery of the stage, such as parachutes and avionics, are located in an interstage section between the first and second stages, and the company is producing separate versions of that interstage for recovery and non-recovery launches. The recovery hardware does reduce the vehicle’s payload by about 10 kilograms now, with an additional 5 to 10 kilograms reduction once all the recovery systems are added.
Changes to the first stage itself, like the improved heat shield, will likely be used for both expendable and reusable missions. “We certainly hope that the majority of the missions are recovery missions,” he said. “There’s no point in only recovering 1 in every 10.”
While Rocket Lab was motivated to pursue reusability as a means of increasing its flight rate without having to expand its factory, the ability to reuse vehicles could drive down costs and change the economics of smallsat launch. He compared dedicated small launch systems like Electron to services like Uber, contrasting them to secondary payload opportunities that, like buses, are less expensive but also less flexible.
“If you can do what an Uber does for the same cost as the bus, then that has a really big impact on the economics,” he said. “That’s probably what I’m most excited about with respect to reusability.”
Source: https://spacenews.com/rocket-lab-declares-success-in-electron-rocket-recovery/
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Rocket Lab launches Japanese radar imaging satellite
by Jeff Foust — December 15, 2020
(https://spacenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/electron-strixa-879x485.jpg)
A Rocket Lab Electron lifts off Dec. 15, carrying the StriX-α SAR imaging satellite for Synspective. Credit: Rocket Lab
WASHINGTON — Rocket Lab successfully launched the first satellite for a Japanese radar imaging startup, concluding a roller-coaster year for the small launch vehicle company.
The Electron rocket lifted off from Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand at 5:09 a.m. Eastern. The rocket’s kick stage deployed its sole payload, the StriX-α satellite for Synspective, about an hour after liftoff into a 500-kilometer sun-synchronous orbit. The launch used a customized payload fairing to accommodate what Rocket Lab called the “extra-wide body” of the satellite.
StriX-α is the first in a constellation planned by Tokyo-based Synspective, which raised $100 million as of mid-2019 (https://spacenews.com/japanese-sar-startup-synspective-reaches-100-million-in-funding/). The “100-kilogram class” spacecraft, as described by the company, can generate synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery with a resolution of one to three meters. It will be followed by StriX-β, a second demonstration satellite, in 2021. The company ultimately plans to deploy a constellation of more than 30 satellites.
Synspective originally contracted with Arianespace to launch StriX-α on a Vega rocket. However, in April it announced it had signed a contract with Rocket Lab for the satellite (https://spacenews.com/synspective-shifts-launch-of-first-satellite-to-rocket-lab/), citing delays in the Vega launch schedule caused by a July 2019 launch failure. The company expects to use the Arianespace contract for the launch of a future satellite instead.
“With the launch of StriX-α, Synspective will be able to demonstrate its satellite capabilities and data processing technology,” said Motoyuki Arai, founder and chief executive of Synspective, in a statement after the launch. “This is the first step towards our constellation of 30 satellites and along with the development of our solutions, a full-scale business expansion will begin.”
The launch, called “The Owl’s Night Begins” by Rocket Lab, was the 17th of the Electron rocket overall, and seventh of 2020. Rocket Lab entered the year with the goal of launching up to 12 Electrons, performing its first launch, of a National Reconnaissance Office payload, in January.
The coronavirus pandemic, though, forced Rocket Lab to suspend launch operations in March (https://spacenews.com/rocket-lab-postpones-launch-because-of-coronavirus-pandemic/) as it was preparing for its second mission. It resumed launches in June, launching a second mission for the NRO that also carried university payloads.
The company suffered a setback in July when an Electron launch carrying satellites for Canon Electronics, Planet and In-Space Missions failed. Rocket Lab traced the failure to a faulty electrical connection in the rocket’s upper stage that eluded quality control testing prior to launch. The company returned Electron to flight less than two months after the failure, launching a SAR satellite for Capella Space. That launch also carried Rocket Lab’s first Photon satellite.
After an October launch of satellites for Canon and Planet, Rocket Lab launched nearly 30 small satellites for various customers on a Nov. 19 launch. That launch was the first where the company attempted to recover the rocket’s first stage, part of a project announced in 2019 to eventually reuse the booster. The company was able to recover the booster from the ocean, declaring the effort a “complete success.”
Rocket Lab did not attempt to recover the first stage on the StriX-α launch. The next recovery attempt will be on a launch in early 2021, the company said during the launch webcast.
Source: https://spacenews.com/rocket-lab-launches-japanese-radar-imaging-satellite/
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Rocket Lab launches secretive communications satellite for OHB
by Jeff Foust — January 20, 2021 Updated 2:45 p.m. Eastern with OHB statement. [SN]
(https://spacenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/electron-gmst-879x485.jpg)
A Rocket Lab Electron lifts off Jan. 20 carrying the GMS-T communications satellite built by OHB. Credit: Rocket Lab
WASHINGTON — Rocket Lab successfully launched a communications satellite for German company OHB Group Jan. 20 in the first Electron mission of the year.
The Electron lifted off from the company’s Launch Complex 1 at Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand, at 2:26 a.m. Eastern after a brief delay because of gusty winds. Rocket Lab scrubbed the original launch attempt for the “Another One Leaves the Crust” mission four days earlier because of “strange data” from a sensor.
Electron released the sole satellite on the mission, GMS-T, 70 minutes after liftoff. “Perfect orbit, payload deployed. Hello 2021!” tweeted Peter Beck, chief executive of Rocket Lab.
The payload for this mission has been shrouded in secrecy since Rocket Lab announced the planned launch Jan. 5. The name of the satellite itself was not disclosed by OHB until after liftoff, and a press kit for the mission did not include the satellite’s mass or orbital altitude, stating only that it was going into an orbit at an inclination of 90 degrees.
Rocket Lab said in its announcement of the upcoming launch that the payloads “will be a single communication microsatellite that will enable specific frequencies to support future services from orbit.” OHB, which built the satellite, procured the launch last August. At the time it cited “an unmatched delivery time” by Rocket Lab, who agreed to launch the payload within six months.
An image of the rocket’s payload fairing included a logo with an illustration of the satellite and the words “BIU GMS-T.” Analysts speculated that the name of the satellite was GMS-T, with BIU referring to “bring into use,” a term in satellite communications for first use of spectrum allocated by the International Telecommunication Union and national regulators and consistent with the stated mission to “enable specific frequencies” for future applications.
Najjar@AlexNajjarEC I think i have ID-ed the mystery OHB payload! Seems to be a GMS Zhaopin aka Kleo Connect prototype for LEO broadband. Probably secret due to Germany-China relations (see Mynaric for example)
Gunter Krebs @Skyrocket71 Does anyone have any info on the @OHB_SE payload of @RocketLab Electron #anotheroneleavesthecrust mission? What is "BIU GMS-T".
Hard to admit, but this one escaped my identification so far.
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EraaGQpXEAUf-cj?format=png&name=360x360)(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EraaQRlWMAEUitz?format=jpg&name=large)
9:27 AM · Jan 11, 2021 Twitter (https://twitter.com/AlexNajjarEC/status/1348547034861756422?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1348547034861756422%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fspacenews.com%2Frocket-lab-launches-secretive-communications-satellite-for-ohb%2F)
The ultimate customer for the satellite may be GMS Zhaopin, a Chinese company planning a satellite constellation. It has been linked to a German company, KLEO Connect, that has announced plans for a constellation to provide internet of things services.
In a statement after the launch, OHB described GMS-T as a “50 kg class” satellite placed in an orbit 1,200 kilometers high. It described GMS-T as “the first prototype spacecraft for a planned new multi-hundred telecommunication satellite constellation in LEO using microwave broadband radio communication links” and confirmed it was launched to meet ITU bring-into-use requirements. The company, though, did not disclose the ultimate customer of GMS-T.
“With outstanding agility, reactiveness and flexibility, OHB and its key partners were able to engineer, assemble, test and launch this satellite in an unmatched contract-to-launch time,” Lutz Bertling, chief digital officer of OHB, said in the statement, which noted work to assemble the spacecraft started just seven months ago.
The launch is the first of what Rocket Lab previously called a “packed launch manifest” for 2021 (https://spacenews.com/virgin-orbit-rocket-lab-schedule-first-launches-of-2021/), although the company has not announced a specific number of launches it foresees performing this year. Those launches will include the first launches from Launch Complex 2 at Wallops Island, Virginia, and from a second pad at Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand.
Source: https://spacenews.com/rocket-lab-launches-secretive-communications-satellite-for-ohb/
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Electron launch demonstrated enhanced kick stage
by Jeff Foust — January 28, 2021
(https://spacenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/electron-gmst-879x485.jpg)
A Rocket Lab Electron lifts off Jan. 20 carrying the GMS-T communications satellite built by OHB. Credit: Rocket Lab
WASHINGTON — Rocket Lab stretched the performance of the kick stage of its Electron rocket on its most recent launch, the first in a series of milestones the company has set out for this year.
During the Jan. 20 launch, Electron’s kick stage placed its payload, a satellite built by German company OHB Group, into a circular orbit at an altitude of 1,200 kilometers. The kick stage fired again to lower the perigee of its orbit by 740 kilometers to accelerate its eventual reentry.
“The last launch was quite a complicated one,” Peter Beck, chief executive of Rocket Lab, said in an interview. Most Electron missions deploy their payloads at an altitude of about 500 kilometers, so the kick stage needed to fire its Curie engine for more than twice the duration of a standard mission. That kick stage carried double the number of propellant tanks to carry out that mission profile.
Neither Rocket Lab nor OHB have released many details about the satellite on that mission, GMS-T, other than it is a “50-kilogram class” communications satellite. Beck, though, said that contrary to some suggestions that GMS-T is for a Chinese company, the satellite is “100% European.” More recent speculation has linked the project to Thales Alenia Space to bring into use spectrum originally intended for LeoSat.
Rocket Lab signed the contract with OHB less than six months before the launch, and Beck said that kind of responsiveness is a key part of his company’s business model. “The type of customer coming to us is looking for that high-reliability white-glove service,” he said. “That kind of customer service is pretty hard to replicate.”
That degree of service, he argued, will set the company apart from both other small launch vehicle companies and rideshare services, like SpaceX’s Transporter-1 mission that launched 143 satellites Jan. 24. SpaceX’s rideshare program in particular threatens to undercut small launchers by offering a steady stream of low-cost launch opportunities.
“Low-cost rideshare has always been available,” he said, with the difference now that it is being offered by SpaceX rather than Russian or Indian launch vehicles. “We still see customers coming to us who just can’t wait.”
The demonstration of the kick stage’s enhanced performance is the first of several milestones Rocket Lab plans for 2021. The next Electron launch, currently scheduled for March, will include the company’s second Photon satellite along with several commercial payloads.
Beck said Rocket Lab will use the Photon to perform testing to prepare for its launch of NASA’s Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE) mission to the moon, which will use Photon as a translunar injection stage. “The maneuvers for the CAPSTONE mission are very, very difficult,” he said. “This is all about building heritage on components and processes.”
CAPSTONE is scheduled for launch in the second quarter on an Electron flying out of Launch Complex 2 in Wallops Island, Virginia. That schedule depends on final NASA certification of the autonomous flight termination system for the rocket, a process that has been delayed for months. Beck said the company was still hopeful that the system will be approved in time to keep the launch on that schedule.
Rocket Lab also plans to open a second pad at Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand in the second quarter. Beck said the strongback structure will be installed on the pad “relatively shortly,” followed by final commissioning.
The second quarter will also see Rocket Lab’s second attempt to recover the Electron first stage. The company recovered the first stage from a Nov. 19 launch and has since been testing the stage and its components.
That second recovery attempt will be “essentially” the same as the first one, he said, with the main difference being an improved heat shield at the base of the rocket. The company knew the existing heat shield wasn’t sufficient to protect the stage enough to enable reuse, but wanted on the first flight to see how much extra protection is required.
“The heating condition was really good,” he said of the November flight, “but we want to lower the heating a little bit more.” Engineers have cut up the first stage to perform testing, including to see how the carbon composite structures reacted to “transient excursions into high heating” during reentry. “The results look really good right now, but the lower the heat load that we can put on the stage, the better.”
Beck said that some components of the stage, such as avionics and electrical systems, “are as good as the day they flew.” Those have been requalified and, in some cases, installed on other vehicles being assembled for future launches.
“We’re hoping to have multiple recoveries this year,” he said. “The goal I’ve set for the team for this year is that, by the end of the year, we want to get one back that is in the condition to refly. We may not get it reflown, but we’re at least going to get one back in a condition that is good enough to refly.”
Source: https://spacenews.com/electron-launch-demonstrated-enhanced-kick-stage/
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Rocket Lab launches smallsat rideshare mission
by Jeff Foust — March 22, 2021 [SN]
(https://spacenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/photon-pathstone-879x485.jpg)
In addition to launching six smallsats, the latest Electron mission includes "Photon Pathstone," a second test of the company's smallsat bus. Credit: Rocket Lab
WASHINGTON — Rocket Lab launched six smallsats for a variety of commercial and government customers March 22 on a mission also intended to demonstrate the performance of its own smallsat bus.
The company’s Electron rocket lifted off from Launch Complex 1 at Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand, at 6:30 p.m. Eastern. The rocket deployed its kick stage eight and a half minutes after liftoff and, after a 40-minute coast, fired its Curie engine for nearly two minutes. Four minutes later, it deployed five payloads into a 550-kilometer circular orbit inclined at 45 degrees.
The kick stage performed two more firings of its Curie engine before releasing the sixth payload into a 450-kilometer orbit 1 hour and 49 minutes after liftoff.
The largest payload on the launch was a Gen-2 satellite for satellite imaging company BlackSky, the seventh in that series of spacecraft that produce high-resolution imagery. It was the satellite deployed to the lower orbit.
The launch also carried two 6U cubesats built by Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems for two separate Australian companies developing internet-of-things satellite constellations: Myriota 7 for Myriota and Centauri 3 for Fleet. In addition to providing internet-of-things services, Centauri 3 will test technologies for a proposed lunar smallsat mission being studied by a team of Australian companies.
The other three smaller satellites were Gunsmoke-J, a 3U cubesat developed by the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command (SMDC) whose launch was arranged by TriSept, and 1U technology demonstration satellites by Care Weather Technologies and the University of New South Wales Canberra Space.
The Gunsmoke-J satellite attracted the most attention, and controversy, in New Zealand because of concerns raised by some organizations there that the satellite could be used by the U.S. military for targeting weapons, specifically nuclear weapons. Those groups, as well as New Zealand’s Green Party, asked the government to suspend licenses granted by the New Zealand Space Agency for Gunsmoke-J and other U.S. military payloads.
SMDC describes Gunsmoke-J as a demonstration of technologies “that could assist the ground force commander in long-range precision fires and other activities.” (https://spacenews.com/u-s-army-satellite-to-bring-imagery-directly-to-troops-on-the-ground/) The spacecraft will test the ability to provide imagery directly to troops in the field. The New Zealand government took no steps to halt the launch.
In addition to deploying the six satellites, the mission will test the company’s Photon satellite bus, which is based on the kick stage. The “Photon Pathstone” will be the second such test of Photon after its “First Light” mission launched in August 2020. Those tests, the company said, will test systems needed for launching NASA’s CAPSTONE lunar smallsat mission later this year.
The launch was the first for Rocket Lab since it announced March 1 its intent to go public through a merger with Vector Acquisition Corporation (https://spacenews.com/rocket-lab-to-go-public-through-spac-merger-and-develop-medium-lift-rocket/), a special-purpose acquisition corporation. That deal, expected to close in the second quarter, will provide Rocket Lab with about $750 million in capital and value the company at $4.1 billion. The company announced at the same time its intent to develop Neutron, a medium-class launch vehicle.
In an interview during the company’s webcast of the launch, Peter Beck, chief executive of Rocket Lab, offered no updates on either the SPAC deal or development of Neutron. He did say that Rocket Lab’s next attempt to recover an Electron first stage was “not too many missions away.” The company recovered the first stage from an Electron launch for the first time in November (https://spacenews.com/rocket-lab-declares-success-in-electron-rocket-recovery/).
That upcoming launch, he said, will include upgrades such as a more robust heat shield at the base of the rocket. “We’re expecting much better performance and hopefully much better condition of the stage when we go pick it back up.”
Source: https://spacenews.com/rocket-lab-launches-smallsat-rideshare-mission/
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Rocket Lab to make second booster recovery attempt
by Jeff Foust — May 14, 2021
(https://spacenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/eelctron-recovery-879x485.jpg)
An Electron first stage being recovered after a launch in November 2020. Rocket Lab plans to make a second recovery attempt on a launch scheduled for May 15. Credit: Rocket Lab
WASHINGTON — The next launch of Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket will be the second mission where the company attempts to recover the vehicle’s first stage as part of its efforts to reuse the booster.
An Electron rocket is scheduled to launch no earlier than 6 a.m. Eastern May 15 from Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand. It will place into orbit two imaging satellites for BlackSky in the first of four dedicated missions arranged through launch services company Spaceflight earlier this year.
Source: https://spacenews.com/rocket-lab-to-make-second-booster-recovery-attempt/
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Electron launch fails
by Jeff Foust — May 15, 2021
(https://spacenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/electron-f20-879x485.jpg)
A Rocket Lab electron lifts off May 15 from the company’s New Zealand launch site. The launch failed minutes later when the second stage’s engine appeared to shut down seconds after ignition. Credit: Rocket Lab webcast
WASHINGTON — A Rocket Lab Electron rocket failed to reach orbit May 15 when its second stage engine shut down seconds after ignition, the second launch failure in less than a year for the company.
The Electron lifted off from Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand at 7:11 a.m. Eastern. The liftoff was delayed by a little more than an hour because of upper-level winds.
The first stage of the vehicle appeared to perform as expected. The second stage then separated and ignited its single Rutherford engine. However, video from the rocket broadcast on the company’s webcast of the mission showed that engine shutting down seconds later. Telemetry from the launch indicated the vehicle was slowing down before that telemetry was removed from the webcast.
Source: https://spacenews.com/electron-launch-fails/
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Rocket Lab identifies cause of Electron failure
by Jeff Foust — July 19, 2021 [SN]
(https://spacenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/electron-f20-879x485.jpg)
Rocket Lab said "a previously undetectable failure mode" in the igniter system for the second stage engine caused an Electron launch May 15 to fail. Credit: Rocket Lab webcast
EL PASO, Texas — Rocket Lab said July 19 that it has identified the cause of an Electron launch failure more than two months ago and that the vehicle is ready to return to flight.
The Electron rocket failed to reach orbit in a May 15 launch from Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand. Shortly after stage separation, the upper stage’s single Rutherford engine ignited but appeared to shut down seconds later. The company declared the vehicle lost about a half-hour later.
Source: https://spacenews.com/rocket-lab-identifies-cause-of-electron-failure/
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Rocket Lab returns Electron to flight with Space Force launch
by Jeff Foust — July 29, 2021 [SN]
(https://spacenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/electron-july21-879x485.jpg)
A Rocket Lab Electron lifts off July 29 on its return-to-flight mission after a May 15 launch failure. Credit: Rocket Lab webcast
WASHINGTON — Rocket Lab returned its Electron rocket to flight July 29 with the successful launch of an experimental satellite for the U.S. Space Force.
The Electron lifted off from the company’s Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand at 2 a.m. Eastern. The rocket’s two stages performed normally and, after a coast phase, the vehicle’s kick stage deployed the Monolith satellite 52 minutes after liftoff into a 600-kilometer orbit at an inclination of 37 degrees.
Source: https://spacenews.com/rocket-lab-returns-electron-to-flight-with-space-force-launch/
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Pandemic delaying Rocket Lab launches
by Jeff Foust — September 9, 2021
(https://spacenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/rocketlab-flight21-879x485.jpg)
Rocket Lab doesn't expect to resume Electron launches until October because of pandemic-related lockdowns in New Zealand. Credit: Rocket Lab
NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — Rocket Lab says lockdowns in New Zealand caused by the latest surge of the coronavirus pandemic will postpone launches to at least October and cut its projected revenues for the year.
In a Sept. 8 earnings call, the first since the company went public through a merger with a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC), company executives said they did not anticipate performing their next Electron launch before the end of September because of restrictions in New Zealand caused by the delta variant of the pandemic.
Source: https://spacenews.com/pandemic-delaying-rocket-lab-launches/
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Rocket Lab to launch Astroscale inspection satellite
by Jeff Foust — September 23, 2021 [SN]
(https://spacenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/adrasj-879x485.jpg)
Astroscale's ADRAS-J mission, to launch on a Rocket Lab Electron in 2023, will rendezvous with an inspect an upper stage from a Japanese rocket left in orbit. Credit: Astroscale
WASHINGTON — Rocket Lab will launch an Astroscale mission to rendezvous with a spent rocket stage in low Earth orbit, a prelude to eventually deorbiting the stage.
Rocket Lab announced Sept. 21 that it won a contract from Astroscale for the launch of its Active Debris Removal by Astroscale-Japan (ADRAS-J) spacecraft. A Rocket Lab Electron will launch ADRAS-J from its Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand in 2023.
Source: https://spacenews.com/rocket-lab-to-launch-astroscale-inspection-satellite/
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Rocket Lab launches BlackSky satellites
by Jeff Foust — November 18, 2021 [SN]
(https://spacenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/electron-nov2021.jpg)
A Rocket Lab Electron rocket lifts off Nov. 17 carrying two BlackSky satellites. Credit: Rocket Lab
LAS VEGAS — Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket placed two BlackSky imaging satellites into orbit Nov. 17 on the rocket’s first launch in three and a half months.
The Electron lifted off from Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 1 on Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand, at 8:38 p.m. Eastern. The rocket’s kick stage deployed two BlackSky Gen-2 satellites into orbits at an altitude of 430 kilometers nearly an hour later. BlackSky later confirmed both satellites were operating as expected after deployment.
Source: https://spacenews.com/rocket-lab-launches-blacksky-satellites/
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Rocket Lab ready to attempt midair recovery of Electron booster
by Jeff Foust — November 23, 2021 [SN]
(https://spacenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/electron-silverbooster-1.jpg)
Rocket Lab is adding a new, silvery thermal protection film to the Electron first stage that will be used on the next attempt to recovery the booster, some time in the first half of 2022. Credit: Rocket Lab
WASHINGTON — Rocket Lab says it’s ready to move to the next step in its efforts to recover and reuse Electron first stages by attempting to catch a booster in midair on an upcoming launch.
Source: https://spacenews.com/rocket-lab-ready-to-attempt-midair-recovery-of-electron-booster/
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Rocket Lab launches two BlackSky satellites, wins Synspective contract
by Jeff Foust — December 9, 2021 [SN]
(https://spacenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/electron-blacksky-dec21-879x485.jpg)
A Rocket Lab Electron lifts off from New Zealand Dec. 8 carrying two BlackSky satellites. Credit: Rocket Lab
WASHINGTON — Rocket Lab launched another pair of BlackSky satellites Dec. 8, a day after the company won a contract from a Japanese firm for three launches of radar imaging satellites.
A Rocket Lab Electron lifted off from the company’s Launch Complex One in New Zealand at 7:02 p.m. Eastern. The rocket deployed its payload of two BlackSky satellites into orbits 430 kilometers high and at inclinations of 42 degrees about an hour later.
Source: https://spacenews.com/rocket-lab-launches-two-blacksky-satellites-wins-synspective-contract/
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Rocket Lab expands Colorado facilities, prepares for busy launch year
by Jeff Foust — February 4, 2022 [SN]
(https://spacenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/electron-lc2.jpg)
Rocket Lab hops to conduct a long-delayed first Electron launch from Wallops Island, Virginia, this year once NASA completes certification of an autonomous flight safety system. Credit: Rocket Lab
WASHINGTON — Rocket Lab will expand facilities in Colorado it obtained from a corporate acquisition last year as the company gears up for the first launch in a “crazy busy” year.
Rocket Lab announced Feb. 2 that will open a new “space systems complex” in Littleton, Colorado, near the current offices of Advanced Solutions, Inc. (ASI), a company that Rocket Lab acquired in October 2021. ASI develops flight software used by both government and commercial satellite operators.
Source: https://spacenews.com/rocket-lab-expands-colorado-facilities-prepares-for-busy-launch-year/
State Fight: Virginia is for rockets
by Debra Werner — February 17, 2022 [SN]
(https://spacenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/rocketlab-at-wallops-879x485.jpeg)
Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck, second from right, at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island, Virginia in December 2018. Credit: Rocket Lab
This could be a pivotal year for the Virginia Space.
Rocket Lab, the California company that has been sending payloads to orbit since 2018 on its Electron launch vehicle, may finally get the green light to begin flying rockets from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Virginia’s Wallops Island.
Since Rocket Lab selected the site in 2018, the California company has been working with the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority, which oversees the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, to get it up and running.
https://spacenews.com/state-fight-virginia-is-for-rockets/
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Rocket Lab to debut new launch pad on next mission
February 23, 2022 Stephen Clark [SFN]
(https://spaceflightnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/lc1b-electrons.jpg)
Two Electron rockets stand on Rocket Lab’s launch pads in New Zealand. The rocket on the right is at Launch Complex 1B, and is scheduled to lift off Feb. 28. Credit: Rocket Lab
Rocket Lab’s next mission, targeted for no earlier than Feb. 28, will be the first from a new launch pad at the company’s private spaceport in New Zealand, an addition officials said could double the flight rate of Electron launchers.
The new launch pad, named Launch Complex 1B, lies 383 feet (117 meters) from Launch Complex 1A, the pad Rocket Lab has used for all 23 of its Electron rocket missions to date, according to a company spokesperson.
Source: https://spaceflightnow.com/2022/02/23/rocket-lab-to-debut-new-launch-pad-on-next-launch/
Globalstar selects MDA and Rocket Lab for new satellites
by Jeff Foust — February 24, 2022 Updated 7:20 p.m. Eastern with Globalstar 2021 financial results. [SN]
(https://spacenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Globalstar_constellation-Globalstar-879x485.jpg)
The new satellites will replenish the existing Globalstar fleet, illustrated above, the last of which were launched in 2013. Credit: Globalstar
WASHINGTON — Globalstar has selected MDA Ltd. and Rocket Lab to supply a set of satellites to replenish its constellation, funded by a mystery customer.
Globalstar said Feb. 24 it awarded a contract valued at $327 million to MDA to build 17 satellites intended to extend the life of the company’s existing satellite constellation, which provides messaging and internet-of-things services. The contract includes an option for up to nine additional satellites at $11.4 million each.
https://spacenews.com/globalstar-selects-mda-and-rocket-lab-for-new-satellites/
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Rocket Lab launches Electron rocket, selects Virginia for Neutron factory
by Jeff Foust — March 1, 2022 [SN]
(https://spacenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/electron-20220228-879x485.jpg)
An Electron rocket lifts off from the new Pad B at Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand Feb. 28 carrying a Japanese radar imaging satellite. Credit: Rocket Lab
WASHINGTON — Rocket Lab carried out its first Electron launch of the year Feb. 28, placing a Japanese radar imaging satellite into orbit at the same time the company released its financial results and selected Virginia for a rocket factory.
Source: https://spacenews.com/rocket-lab-launches-electron-rocket-selects-virginia-for-neutron-factory/
E-Space taps Rocket Lab to launch three demo sats by July
by Jason Rainbow — March 21, 2022 [SN]
(https://spacenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Greg-Wyler-Photo2-380x209.jpg)
“E-Space will increase the speed for constellation delivery from years to months, allowing new opportunities for more people to access space-based platforms,” E-Space founder and CEO Greg Wyler said in a statement. Credit: E-Space
WASHINGTON — Rwanda-backed megaconstellation startup E-Space said March 21 it has contracted Rocket Lab to launch three demo satellites in the second quarter of this year.
The spacecraft aim to validate systems and technology for a broadband network that, according to founder and CEO Greg Wyler, will use satellites with significantly smaller cross-sections than other megaconstellations to reduce the risk of in-orbit collisions.
Source: https://spacenews.com/e-space-taps-rocket-lab-to-launch-three-demo-sats-by-july/
Rocket Lab launches BlackSky satellites as it prepares for mid-air booster recovery
by Jeff Foust — April 2, 2022 [SN]
(https://spacenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/electron-220402.jpg)
A Rocket Lab Electron lifts off April 2 carrying two BlackSky imaging satellites. Credit: Rocket Lab webcast
WASHINGTON — A Rocket Lab Electron launched another pair of imaging satellites for BlackSky April 2 as the company gears up to attempt recovery of the rocket’s first stage. (...)
The launch was the latest in a series of Electron launches of BlackSky satellites arranged by Spaceflight. That deal included launches of pairs of BlackSky satellites in November and December 2021 as well as a failed Electron launch in May 2021.
Rocket Lab said March 24 that the launch, the second Electron flight of the year, was previously scheduled for March but postponed by weather. Because of the delay of the launch, revenue from the launch would be recognized in its fiscal second quarter rather than its first. The company updated its revenue projection for the first quarter from $42–47 million to approximately $40 million. (...)
https://spacenews.com/rocket-lab-launches-blacksky-satellites-as-it-prepares-for-mid-air-booster-recovery/
Commercial BlackSky imaging satellites ride with Rocket Lab
April 2, 2022 Stephen Clark
(https://spaceflightnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/rl25streak-1.jpg)
Rocket Lab’s Electron launcher streaks into the night sky over New Zealand with two BlackSky imaging satellites. Credit: Rocket Lab / Joseph Baxter
(...) The spacecraft, each about the size of a small refrigerator, were stacked one on top of the other for launch, fixed to a dual-payload adapter structure. The upper satellite deployed first, followed by separation of the adapter, then the release of the satellite in the lower berth.
A member of Rocket Lab’s launch team at mission control in Auckland, New Zealand, declared “mission success” moments after telemetry confirmed separation of the two BlackSky satellites. (...)
(https://spaceflightnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/blacksky-spaceflight-1.jpg)
Ground teams integrate a BlackSky satellite with Rocket Lab’s kick stage in New Zealand. Credit: Rocket Lab
Each BlackSky satellite weighs about 121 pounds (55 kilograms). The satellites are built by LeoStella, a joint venture between BkackSky and Thales Alenia Space, a major European satellite manufacturer. LeoStella’s production facility is located in Tukwila, Washington, a suburb of Seattle.
BlackSky, with offices in Seattle and Herndon, Virginia, is deploying a fleet of small remote sensing satellites to provide high-resolution Earth imagery to commercial and government clients.
One big customer for BlackSky, with offices near Seattle and in the Washington, D.C., metro area, is the U.S. military and intelligence agencies. BlackSky has agreements to sell commercial imagery to NASA, the National Reconnaissance Office and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.
BlackSky said the launch Saturday expanded the company’s fleet to 14 satellites.
https://spaceflightnow.com/2022/04/02/commercial-blacksky-imaging-satellites-ride-with-rocket-lab/
E-Space sheds more light on sustainable megaconstellation plan
by Jason Rainbow — April 7, 2022 [SN]
(https://spacenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Wyler2-879x485.jpg)
Veteran space entrepreneur Greg Wyler founded O3b and OneWeb before turning his attention to E-Space. Credit: Chuck Bigger
COLORADO SPRINGS — Megaconstellation startup E-Space is preparing to deploy the first of potentially hundreds of thousands of satellites on a Rocket Lab mission slated for no earlier than April 19.
Three E-space prototypes are part of the 34 payloads that Rocket Lab said April 5 are on the upcoming mission, including satellites for Alba Orbital, Astrix Astronautics, Aurora Propulsion Technologies, Unseenlabs and Swarm Technologies.
Rocket Lab will also attempt a mid-air helicopter capture of its Electron launch vehicle for the first time after the flight. The launch is set to commence within a 14-day window starting on April 19 and represents a major step in Rocket Lab’s plans to make the rocket reusable.
https://spacenews.com/e-space-sheds-more-light-on-sustainable-megaconstellation-plan/
Rocket Lab confirms plan to catch booster with helicopter later this month
April 11, 2022 Stephen Clark [SFN]
(https://spaceflightnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/rocketlab-helicopter1.jpg)
A modified Sikorsky S-92 helicopter will attempt to catch a descending Rocket Lab booster in mid-air during the company’s next mission. Credit: Rocket Lab
Rocket Lab plans the first attempt to catch one of its returning small satellite boosters by helicopter after a launch later this month, nearly three years after the company announced its mid-air recovery and reuse concept.
The next Rocket Lab mission is set to lift off from New Zealand no earlier than April 19 with 34 small satellites from commercial operators Alba Orbital, Astrix Astronautics, Aurora Propulsion Technologies, E-Space, Unseenlabs, and Swarm Technologies, the company said April 5.
https://spaceflightnow.com/2022/04/11/rocket-lab-confirms-plan-to-catch-booster-with-helicopter-later-this-month/
Rocket Lab to launch HawkEye 360 satellites on first Wallops Electron mission
by Jeff Foust — April 20, 2022 [SN]
(https://spacenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/electron-lc2.jpg)
Rocket Lab says its first Electron launch from Wallops Island, Virginia, will be no earlier than December carrying satellites for HawkEye 360. Credit: Rocket Lab
WASHINGTON — The long-delayed first launch of a Rocket Lab Electron rocket from Virginia is now scheduled for late this year, carrying satellites for HawkEye 360.
Rocket Lab announced April 19 it signed a contract with HawkEye 360 to deliver 15 satellites over three launches. Two of the launches will be dedicated flights, carrying six satellites each, while the third will carry three satellites on a rideshare mission with other customers.
https://spacenews.com/rocket-lab-to-launch-hawkeye-360-satellites-on-first-wallops-electron-mission/
Rocket Lab launches smallsats, catches but drops booster
by Jeff Foust — May 2, 2022 [SN]
(https://spaceflightnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/rl26_recovered1.jpeg)
Rocket Lab’s Electron booster on-board the company’s recovery ship. Peter Beck, the company’s chief executive, says the booster is in good shape, and the engine positions visible here are a result of the vehicle’s thrust vector control, or gimbal, system, and not damage from re-entry or splashdown. Credit: Rocket Lab
WASHINGTON — Rocket Lab declared success in its effort to catch an Electron booster in midair after launch May 2, even though the helicopter had to release the booster moments later.
The Electron rocket lifted off from the company’s Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand at 6:49 p.m. Eastern after a brief hold in the countdown. The rocket’s ascent went as planned, with the kick stage, carrying a payload of 34 smallsats, reaching orbit about 10 minutes later.
https://spacenews.com/rocket-lab-launches-smallsats-catches-but-drops-booster/
Rocket Lab briefly catches booster in mid-air after successful launch
May 3, 2022 Stephen Clark [SFN]
(https://spaceflightnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/rl26catch2.jpg)
A camera on Rocket Lab’s recovery helicopter shows the Electron booster under its parachute following launch Monday. Credit: Rocket Lab
Rocket Lab used a helicopter to capture a spent Electron first stage booster and its parachute after launching satellites from New Zealand Monday, a significant step forward for the company’s rocket recovery and reuse program. The helicopter dropped the rocket a few seconds later.
The rocket splashed down in the Pacific Ocean under its parachute, and Rocket Lab’s recovery ship pulled the booster from the sea. Peter Beck, Rocket Lab’s CEO, said the vehicle was in good shape and didn’t rule out reusing the rocket in a post-flight conference call with reporters. (...)
The successful mid-air catch of the descending Electron rocket came nearly three years after Rocket Lab announced its plan to recover and reuse first stage boosters.
Before adding the helicopter to the mix, Rocket Lab completed three experimental rocket recoveries from the Pacific Ocean. Those splashdowns under parachutes were experiments designed to gather data on the structural loads, heating, and deceleration the Electron booster encounters during re-entry and descent.
Rocket Lab tested the rocket’s drogue and main parachute designs, demonstrated the use of cold gas thrusters to re-orient the rocket in space, and validated a heat shield to protect the booster and its engines during re-entry.
A customized Sikorsky S-92 helicopter was outfitted to snare the one-ton carbon fiber booster stage suspended under a parachute around 170 miles (280 kilometers) off the coast of New Zealand.
Catching the booster in mid-air prevents it from reaching the ocean, eliminating the risk of hardware corrosion or damage from splashdown in salt water, and easing refurbishment work required to make the rocket suitable to launch again.
The Electron booster is powered by nine kerosene-fueled Rutherford engines. The rocket, standing nearly 60 feet (18 meters) tall on the launch pad, also has a single-engine second stage, and a third stage capable of placing small payloads into orbit. (...)
The payloads included 24 tiny satellites for Swarm Technologies, a company owned by SpaceX which runs a commercial low data rate relay network. Swarm’s “SpaceBEE” satellites are about the size of a slice of bread.
Three demonstration satellites for the startup company E-Space were also launched Monday. The demo sats will test technologies for a planned constellation of small communications spacecraft — which E-Space says could number 100,000 — in low Earth orbit. E-Space is based in the United States and France, and was established by Greg Wyler, founder of O3b Networks and OneWeb.
Rocket Lab also deployed the BRO 6 smallsat for the French company Unseenlabs, which is fielding a maritime and ship surveillance constellation. Aurora Propulsion Technologies, based in Finland, also launched a test satellite named AuroraSat 1 to test a water-based propulsion system for CubeSats.
The mission also launched four small “PocketQubes” in a package for Alba Orbital, a Scottish company. The PocketQubes weighed between 1 and 2 pounds at launch, and included Alba’s Unicorn 2F and three satellites for Acme AtronOmatic, owner of the popular MyRadar weather app.
Acme said the prototype satellites will validate hardware for a planned fleet of small satellites, known as the Hyperspectral Orbital Remote Imaging Spectrometer, or HORIS, constellation.
The HORIS constellation will provide Earth observation data, enhanced by artificial intelligence and machine learning technology, to Acme’s customers and help integrate new services to the MyRadar app, the company said in a press release in March.
Another payload remained attached to Rocket Lab’s kick stage to test an inflatable solar array system for the New Zealand company Astrix Astronautics.
https://spaceflightnow.com/2022/05/03/rocket-lab-briefly-catches-booster-in-mid-air-after-successful-launch/
Space systems dominate Rocket Lab revenue
by Jeff Foust — May 17, 2022 [SN]
(https://spacenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/electron-20220228-879x485.jpg)
Rocket Lab carried out only one Electron launch in the first quarter, a factor in the company's lopsided split between launch and space systems revenue in the quarter. Credit: Rocket Lab
WASHINGTON — Rocket Lab, the company best known for its Electron small launch vehicle, generated most of its first quarter revenue from other space systems and not launch itself.
In quarterly earnings released May 16, Rocket Lab reported $40.7 million in revenue for the first quarter of 2022, a net loss of $26.7 million and an adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) loss of $8 million.
https://spacenews.com/space-systems-dominate-rocket-lab-revenue/
NRO space missions mark new level of US-Australia cooperation (https://www.forum.kosmonauta.net/index.php?topic=5004.msg177518#msg177518)
by Sandra Erwin — July 12, 2022 [SN]
(https://spacenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/FXh_WgTWYAEAEPD-879x485.jpeg)
Rocket Lab launched the NROL-162 mission for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office July 13, 2022, rom the company's launch complex in New Zealand. Credit: Rocket Lab
NROL-162 and NROL-199 carry spy satellites built and operated jointly by the U.S. and Australia
WASHINGTON — Rocket Lab on July 13 launched the NROL-162 mission for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office from the company’s launch complex in New Zealand. NROL-162 is the first of two NRO missions the agency developed in partnership with the Australian Department of Defence.
https://spacenews.com/nro-space-missions-mark-new-level-of-us-australia-cooperation/
Rocket Lab’s next launch for the NRO postponed for software updates
July 18, 2022 Stephen Clark [SFN]
(https://spaceflightnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/20220718rocketlab.jpg)
File photo of two Electron rockets on Rocket Lab’s two launch pads in New Zealand. Credit: Rocket Lab
Rocket Lab’s next mission for the National Reconnaissance Office — the second of two back-to-back launches for the U.S. spy satellite agency — has been postponed to complete a software update on the classified payload, the NRO said Monday.
https://spaceflightnow.com/2022/07/18/rocket-labs-next-launch-for-the-nro-postponed-for-software-updates/
Rocket Lab launches top secret payload for U.S. spy satellite agency
August 4, 2022 Stephen Clark [SFN]
(https://spaceflightnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/20220804rl29quick1.jpg)
Rocket Lab’s Electron launch vehicle takes off from New Zealand Thursday on the NROL-199 mission. Nine Rutherford engines powered the rocket off the pad. Credit: Rocket Lab
Rocket Lab launched its third mission in a little more than five weeks Thursday in New Zealand, deploying a small classified payload in orbit for the National Reconnaissance Office and continuing the busiest stretch of missions in the company’s history.
https://spaceflightnow.com/2022/08/04/rocket-lab-launches-top-secret-payload-for-u-s-spy-satellite-agency/
Indian launch gives OneWeb enough satellites for global internet service
March 26, 2023 Stephen Clark [SFN]
(https://spaceflightnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/20230326lvm3liftoff.jpg)
India’s LVM3, or GSLV Mk.3, rocket lifts off from the Satish Dhawan Space Center with 36 OneWeb satellites. Credit: ISRO
The successful launch of 36 more OneWeb satellites aboard India’s most powerful rocket Saturday brought the total number of OneWeb spacecraft in orbit to 618, enough for the London-based company to start global broadband service later this year.
https://spaceflightnow.com/2023/03/26/indian-launch-gives-oneweb-enough-satellites-for-global-internet-service/
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Start przeniesiony na 15.03.2023 (okno startowe 22:00-00:00) z wyrzutni LA-0C w Wallops
Rocket Lab’s second launch from Virginia will loft two commercial radar satellites
March 10, 2023 Stephen Clark [SFN]
EDITOR’S NOTE: Rocket Lab scrubbed a launch attempt Saturday, March 11, due to out of limits upper level winds.
(https://spaceflightnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/20230310capellaart.jpg)
This artist’s concept shows a Capella Whitney-class satellite in orbit with its solar arrays and radar reflector unfurled. Credit: Capella Space
Rocket Lab’s second mission from a new launch pad in Virginia is set to take off with two commercial radar remote sensing satellites for Capella Space.
The company had a two-hour launch window opening at 6 p.m. EST (2300 GMT) for liftoff Saturday from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at Wallops Island, Virginia, but officials scrubbed the launch attempt due to upper level winds that were out limits.
https://spaceflightnow.com/2023/03/10/rocket-labs-second-launch-from-virginia-will-loft-two-commercial-radar-satellites/
Rocket Lab deploys two Capella radar satellites after launch from Virginia
March 16, 2023 Stephen Clark [SFN]
(https://spaceflightnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/20230316rl34photo.jpg)
Rocket Lab’s Electron launcher climbs away from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island, Virginia. Credit: NASA/Patrick Black
Rocket Lab’s Electron launcher delivered two all-weather radar Earth observation satellites into orbit for Capella Space Thursday night after liftoff from Wallops Island, Virginia, successfully completing the company’s second flight from the U.S. spaceport.
https://spaceflightnow.com/2023/03/16/rocket-lab-deploys-two-capella-radar-satellites-after-successful-launch-from-virginia/
Electron launches two Capella Space radar satellites
Jeff Foust March 16, 2023
(https://i0.wp.com/spacenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/electron-capella-march2023-2.jpg?w=1200&ssl=1)
(...) The Electron was carrying two synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging satellites built and operated by Capella Space on a mission called “Stronger Together” by Rocket Lab. The kick stage delivered the 100-kilogram satellites into a 600-kilometer circular orbit at an inclination of 44 degrees, deploying them nearly 58 minutes after liftoff.
The launch was the second this year for Rocket Lab, after a Jan. 24 launch carrying three HawkEye 360 satellites that provide radio-frequency monitoring services. That launch was also the first by the company from its Virginia launch site.
Rocket Lab expects to conduct up to 15 Electron launches this year from both Virginia and its original launch site in New Zealand, up from nine in 2022. “We’re really working to hit our stride with Electron,” said Richard French, director of business development and strategy for Rocket Lab’s space systems unit, during a panel at the Satellite 2023 conference here March 15. (...)
https://spacenews.com/electron-launches-two-capella-space-radar-satellites/
Rocket Lab recovers booster again after launch with BlackSky satellites
March 24, 2023 Stephen Clark [SFN]
(https://spaceflightnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/20230324electronliftoff.jpg)
An Electron rocket lifts off Friday with two BlackSky Earth-imaging satellites. Credit: Rocket Lab
Two BlackSky optical Earth-imaging satellites rode an Electron launcher into orbit Friday from New Zealand, while the Electron’s first stage booster gently parachuted into the Pacific Ocean as engineers consider abandoning airborne rocket recovery in favor of ship-based retrieval and reuse.
Rocket Lab engineers will inspect and test components on the Electron booster stage once it returns to the company’s factory in Auckland to see how well the hardware weathered the rocket’s scorching-hot re-entry back through the atmosphere, and more crucially, how the booster withstood the corrosive effects of salt water after splashdown.
https://spaceflightnow.com/2023/03/24/rocket-lab-recovers-booster-again-after-launch-with-blacksky-satellites/
Rocket Lab launches NASA TROPICS cubesats
Jeff Foust May 7, 2023
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A Rocket Lab Electron lifts off May 7 carrying two NASA TROPICS cubesats. Credit: Rocket Lab webcast
WASHINGTON — A Rocket Lab Electron launched a pair of NASA cubesats designed to monitor the development of tropical storms, 11 months after the first satellites in the constellation were lost when a different rocket failed.
The Electron lifted off from the company’s Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand at 9 p.m. Eastern May 7. The rocket’s kick stage deployed the two Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation structure and storm Intensity with a Constellation of Smallsats (TROPICS) cubesats about 35 minutes after liftoff, although that was not confirmed until a ground station pass 20 minutes later.
https://spacenews.com/rocket-lab-launches-nasa-tropics-cubesats/
Electron launches seven smallsats in latest step towards reusability (https://www.forum.kosmonauta.net/index.php?topic=5381.msg185676#msg185676)
Jeff Foust July 18, 2023 [SN]
(https://i0.wp.com/spacenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/electron-f39-launch.jpg?resize=1200%2C755&ssl=1)
A Rocket Lab Electron lifts off July 17 on the company's "Baby Come Back" mission. Credit: Rocket Lab
WASHINGTON — A Rocket Lab Electron rocket placed seven smallsats for three customers into orbit July 17 on a launch that also brought the company a step closer to reusing the rocket’s booster.
The Electron lifted off from the company’s Launch Complex 1 on New Zealand’s Mahia Peninsula at 9:27 p.m. Eastern. The launch was scheduled for July 14 but postponed as the company made final preparations to both launch the rocket and recover the booster.
After an initial burn of the rocket’s kick stage, it deployed four NASA Starling 6U cubesats and two Spire 3U cubesats into a 575-kilometer sun-synchronous orbit. After two more burns, the kick stage deployed the final payload, Telesat’s LEO 3 satellite, into a 1,000-kilometer orbit an hour and 45 minutes after liftoff.
https://spacenews.com/electron-launches-seven-smallsats-in-latest-step-towards-reusability/
Rocket Lab reuses engine on Electron launch
Jeff Foust August 23, 2023 [SN]
(https://i0.wp.com/spacenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/electron-capella-aug2023.jpg?resize=1200%2C661&ssl=1)
An Electron rocket lifts off Aug. 23 carrying a Capella Space satellite. The Electron first stage included an engine that had previously flown on a launch in May 2022. Credit: Rocket Lab webcast
WASHINGTON — Rocket Lab successfully reflew an engine on an Electron launch Aug. 23 as the company moves a step closer to reusing the entire rocket booster.
The Electron rocket lifted off from the company’s Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand at 7:45 p.m. Eastern. The “We Love the Nightlife” mission deployed a Capella Space radar imaging satellite into a 640-kilometer mid-inclination orbit 58 minutes after liftoff.
https://spacenews.com/rocket-lab-reuses-engine-on-electron-launch/