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Rocket Lab Set to Launch Commercial Payloads on April 20

posted by martyb on Friday April 13 2018, @11:45AM   
from the fortunes-are-looking-up dept.

takyon writes:

Rocket Lab is about to win the small satellite launch space race

Life is pretty good for Rocket Lab and its founder Peter Beck right now. With two test flights of its Electron rocket completed in the last 10.5 months, the company says it will move into commercial operations later this month. The 14-day launch window for the "It's Business Time" mission, carrying two private payloads, opens on April 20.

In an interview, Beck said Rocket Lab hopes to fly eight missions in 2018 and reach a monthly launch cadence by the end of the year. The company's initial test flight in May 2017 failed to reach orbit, but a second flight in January of this year was almost entirely successful. Rocket Lab will become the first of a number of small-satellite launch companies to begin serving customers.

Previously: Rocket Lab Makes Suborbital Launch From New Zealand
Rocket Lab's Second "Electron" Rocket Launch Succeeds, Reaches Orbit

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Original Submission

• was almost entirely successful . . . was almost entirely successful . . . (Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 13 2018, @04:15PM (1 child)

  by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 13 2018, @04:15PM (#666507)

  Boss, "what is the status of the project?"

  Me, "It was almost entirely successful!"

  Boss, "Pack up your desk . . . "

  Starting Score:	0		points
  Moderation		+3
  Interesting=1, Funny=2, Total=3
  Extra 'Funny' Modifier		0
  Total Score:		3

• Re:was almost entirely successful . . . (Score: 3, Insightful) by bob_super on Friday April 13 2018, @05:50PM

  by bob_super (1357) on Friday April 13 2018, @05:50PM (#666545)

  Falcon Heavy was almost entirely successful, and I suspect that they ran out of Champagne despite the big explosion and ship damage.

  You just need to be good at partial failure.

  Parent