Rocket Lab selects Wallops for U.S. launch site
Small launch vehicle company Rocket Lab announced Oct. 17 that it will build its second launch pad, and first in the United States, at Wallops Island in Virginia.
The company, headquartered in the United States but with much of its operations in New Zealand, said it will build Launch Complex (LC) 2 at the Mid Atlantic Regional Spaceport, located at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility here. Construction of the pad is set to start almost immediately, with the company planning a first launch from the site in the third quarter of 2019.
Rocket Lab selected Wallops after what Rocket Lab Chief Executive Peter Beck called an "exhaustive nationwide search" for a launch site to complement its existing facility in New Zealand, known as LC-1. The company announced four finalists in July that included Wallops as well as Cape Canaveral in Florida, Vandenberg Air Force Base in California and Pacific Spaceport Complex – Alaska.
Also at Ars Technica.
Previously: Rocket Lab Plans to Build its Next Launch Site in the US
Related: NASA Awards Launch Contracts to Rocket Lab and Virgin Orbit
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NASA awards Venture Class contracts to Rocket Lab, Virgin Orbit
NASA has awarded launch contracts to two launch providers, Rocket Lab and Virgin Orbit, whose rockets carry smaller payloads than the traditional workhorse rockets used to orbit uncrewed spacecraft and satellites.
With technology continuously making space hardware lighter and smaller, the new CubeSats being built today are quite capable of making scientific studies and testing new spacecraft technologies. NASA is looking to further utilize these low cost platforms.
In order to keep CubeSat costs effective, they are traditionally launched as a secondary payloads on larger launchers such as the United Launch Alliance Atlas V or SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets.
The new Venture Class contracts puts these low-cost payloads onto smaller, lower-cost launchers. Each rocket could allow NASA to send approximately 12 CubeSats into orbit without having to be constrained to a certain trajectory when flying as a secondary payload. This could give NASA the ability to send CubeSat payloads into orbits that are best suited to accomplish particular missions or perform the scientific research they were designed for.
Rocket Lab and Virgin Orbit.
Related: Rocket Lab's Second "Electron" Rocket Launch Succeeds, Reaches Orbit
Rocket Lab Set to Launch Commercial Payloads on April 20
Rocket Lab plans to build its second launch site in the U.S. Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 is located in New Zealand:
Small satellite launch company Rocket Lab says it's looking to expand its spaceflight operations by creating a new launch pad in the United States. This new site will be the second one for the US-based startup, which already launches its rockets from a private pad in New Zealand.
Rocket Lab hasn't picked a location for the second launch site yet, but has narrowed it down to four places, all at government-run launch facilities. These include the US's two most prolific spaceports, Cape Canaveral, Florida, and Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The other two sites include Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, as well as the Pacific Spaceport Complex in southern Alaska. Rocket Lab says a final decision will be made in 2018. First, the company needs to work through all the necessary regulatory hurdles and costs, as well as figure out how long construction will take. A new pad will be built specifically for Rocket Lab's primary vehicle, the Electron.
The company's third launch, "It's Business Time," has been delayed. That launch will carry commercial payloads.
Related: Rocket Lab's Second "Electron" Rocket Launch Succeeds, Reaches Orbit
NASA Awards Launch Contracts to Rocket Lab and Virgin Orbit
Rocket Lab plans to merge with a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC), become a publicly traded company, and develop a medium-lift partially reusable rocket. "Neutron" would be competitive with SpaceX's Falcon 9 and capable of launching cargo and astronauts to the International Space Station.
The funding from the SPAC merger will enable another new initiative. Rocket Lab said it is working on a medium-class launch vehicle called Neutron, capable of placing up to 8,000 kilograms into low Earth orbit, more than 20 times the capacity of Electron. The company disclosed few technical details about Neutron, but said that it intends to make the first stage reusable through propulsive landing on an ocean platform, similar to SpaceX's recovery of Falcon 9 first stages.
The new vehicle is intended to support the growing interest in satellite megaconstellations. "Neutron's eight-ton lift capacity will make it ideally sized to deploy satellites in batches to specific orbital planes, creating a more targeted and streamlined approach to building out megaconstellations," Beck said in the statement.
Rocket Lab had previously resisted building a larger vehicle. "There's no market for it," Beck said during a side session of the Smallsat Conference in August 2020. "If you build a larger rocket, you relegate yourself to being purely rideshare, and rideshare is really well-served."
The first Neutron launch is scheduled for 2024 from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at Wallops Island, Virginia. The vehicle will leverage the infrastructure the company built at Launch Complex 2 there for the Electron rocket, which will make its debut from that pad later this year. Rocket Lab said it's "assessing locations across America" for a factory that would handle large-scale production of Neutron.
Previously (company history as seen on SN):
Rocket Lab Unveils "Electric" Rocket Engine
Moon Express and Rocket Lab Team Up for 2017 Lunar Mission
New Companies Begin to Target the Micro-Satellite Market
"Planet" Purchases 3 Launches from "Rocket Lab"
Rocket Lab Makes Suborbital Launch From New Zealand
Launch of Rocket Lab's Second "Electron" Rocket Due Dec. 7-8
Rocket Lab's Second "Electron" Rocket Launch Succeeds, Reaches Orbit
Rocket Lab's Electron Rocket Launched "Humanity Star", a Temporary Source of Light Pollution
Rocket Lab Set to Launch Commercial Payloads on April 20
NASA Awards Launch Contracts to Rocket Lab and Virgin Orbit
Rocket Lab Plans to Build its Next Launch Site in the US
Rocket Lab to Build U.S. Launch Site at Wallops Island, Virginia
Rocket Lab's Modest Launch is Giant Leap for Small Rocket Business
Rocket Lab Set to Launch its First Payloads for NASA
Rocket Lab Mission for NASA Successfully Launches 13 CubeSats
Rocket Lab Successfully Launches R3D2 Mission for DARPA
Rocket Lab Will Build Satellites for Launch Customers
Rocket Lab Will Attempt to Recover First Stages Using a Helicopter
Rocket Lab's Guided Reentry Test Moves Company Closer to Partially Reusable Rockets
NASA Selects 18 Research CubeSats as Secondary Payloads; Rocket Lab Will Send CubeSat to Lunar Orbit
After a Second Stage Failure, Rocket Lab Loses Seven Satellites
Rocket Lab Will Resume Missions in August Following Launch Failure
Rocket Lab Secretly Launched its Own Company-made Satellite on Latest Flight
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 18 2018, @09:35PM (7 children)
Everytime one of these billionaires launches a rocket, it releases more CO2 than 70,000 typical families will release in a whole year. Think about that next time Al Gore asks you to buy some carbon credits.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday October 18 2018, @10:17PM (2 children)
Citation needed. I would put it at closer to 20 households, and even less for Rocket Lab.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 18 2018, @10:24PM (1 child)
No Citation necessary. When you repeat something often enough, it becomes true.
- Goebbels
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday October 19 2018, @01:51AM
Bullshit [wikiquote.org]
Goebbels's use of the expression [wikipedia.org]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 4, Informative) by tftp on Thursday October 18 2018, @11:05PM (2 children)
The mass of RP-1 in Falcon is 119.1 metric tons. Per this formula [scientificamerican.com] we can expect about 300-350 tons of CO2 .
To compare a rocket to a single car we just need to figure out how much 119.1 m.tons of fuel would be in gallons (gasoline and kerosine are very similar.) It is 0.78–0.81 g/cm3. Using 0.80 we get 95,280,000 cm3 or, thanks to Wolfram Alpha, 25,170 gallons. This is the fuel load of one Falcon.
If one family drives about 100 miles daily (36,500 miles per year) in an average modern car (30 mpg), they need 1,216 gallons per year. Dividing the fuel load of Falcon to this, we get 20.69 families. Thus, your statement "it releases more CO2 than 70,000 typical families will release in a whole year" is a bit exaggerated.
(Score: 1) by NateMich on Thursday October 18 2018, @11:43PM
Of course he was actually referring to them breathing.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 19 2018, @12:05AM
What sort of family drives 100 miles per day? We're talking about normal people, not Al "Use It or Lose It" Gore. Changing your calculation to a more realistic 20 miles daily, five times per week, with a fuel efficient car at 42mpg, and you get a lot closer to the original poster's 70,000 number.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Thursday October 18 2018, @11:17PM
Besides your numbers being way off... and the fact you haven't considered how digging trenches all over the place to serve the same area wouldn't exactly be ecological...
The outrage should not be directed at the launch company billionaires, but at the billionaires who pay to send yet another bird to help propagate more shitty brain-melting and/or propaganda TV.