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posted by takyon on Monday November 12 2018, @04:46AM   Printer-friendly
from the pocket-rocket dept.

Rocket Lab's Modest Launch Is Giant Leap for Small Rocket Business:

The company's Electron rocket carried a batch of small commercial satellites from a launchpad in New Zealand, a harbinger of a major transformation to the space business.

A small rocket from a little-known company lifted off Sunday from the east coast of New Zealand, carrying a clutch of tiny satellites. That modest event — the first commercial launch by a U.S.-New Zealand company known as Rocket Lab — could mark the beginning of a new era in the space business, where countless small rockets pop off from spaceports around the world. This miniaturization of rockets and spacecraft places outer space within reach of a broader swath of the economy.

The rocket, called the Electron, is a mere sliver compared to the giant rockets that Elon Musk, of SpaceX, and Jeffrey P. Bezos, of Blue Origin, envisage using to send people into the solar system. It is just 56 feet tall and can carry only 500 pounds into space.

But Rocket Lab is aiming for markets closer to home. "We're FedEx," said Peter Beck, the New Zealand-born founder and chief executive of Rocket Lab. "We're a little man that delivers a parcel to your door."

Behind Rocket Lab, a host of start-up companies are also jockeying to provide transportation to space for a growing number of small satellites. The payloads include constellations of telecommunications satellites that would provide the world with ubiquitous internet access. The payload of this mission, which Rocket Lab whimsically named "It's Business Time," offered a glimpse of this future: two ship-tracking satellites for Spire Global; a small climate- and environment-monitoring satellite for GeoOptics; a small probe built by high school students in Irvine, Calif., and a demonstration version of a drag sail that would pull defunct satellites out of orbit.

So, there's SpaceX, Blue Origin, and ULA (United Launch Alliance) in the US as well as Russia, India, and China working on heavy-lift rockets. There are companies that will even buy an entire launch and parcel out space for smaller payloads such as Spaceflight Industries out of Seattle, WA.

Is there enough of a market for all these kinds of rockets? Will smaller companies get bought out and assimilated by the heavy hitters, or will the big guys also develop smaller rockets to fill the need at that end of the market?

If you are interested in what rocket launches are scheduled, the best site I've found so far is: https://spaceflightnow.com/launch-schedule/.

Whatever may happen, if you have a payload to launch, things sure are looking... up!

See also: Rocket Launch in New Zealand Brings Quick, Cheap Space Access


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  • (Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Monday November 12 2018, @09:25AM

    by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Monday November 12 2018, @09:25AM (#760851) Homepage Journal

    Rather, it regulates signal interference between satellites. Apparently it is up to each satellite company to figure out a slot that won't do that.

    In the US, the FAA regulates space launches so as to ensure the health and safety of the American people, but doesn't cover actual satellites.

    A while back, it is thought that a polar satellite collided with an equatorial one, this because they both disappeared at the same time in the same general vicinity. That would have been quite cool to watch, but quite hazardous to actually do so.

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