Rocket Lab tests key maneuver needed for reusability during 10th flight to space
Small satellite launcher Rocket Lab successfully flew its 10th mission this morning from New Zealand, sending seven small spacecraft into orbit above Earth. While the primary goal of the flight was a success, Rocket Lab also used the mission to test out a key maneuver with its rocket — one that could allow the company to reuse its vehicles in the future.
Rocket Lab's one and only rocket is the Electron, a 55-foot-tall vehicle designed to send relatively small payloads into space. [...] After deploying satellites into orbit, the rocket falls back to Earth and is basically out of commission. But in August, Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck announced that the company was going to try things differently. The team is now working toward recovering part of the Electron after each flight in order to fly the vehicles back to space again. That way, the company can save itself from having to build an entirely new rocket for each mission, potentially making it cheaper for its customers to fly.
[...] Rocket Lab is still a long way off from catching the Electron with helicopters. But today, the company was able to test out one part of the recovery process: the guided reentry. It was a particularly difficult task since the rocket creates heated shockwaves when coming back to Earth, which risks tearing the vehicle apart. To combat these challenges, this particular Electron was outfitted with guidance and navigation systems that helped collect data during the rocket's fall. It also had a control system that helped to reorient the vehicle as it descended. Ultimately, it came back to Earth in one piece, which is what Rocket Lab was hoping for.
List of Electron rocket launches.
Also at CNBC and TechCrunch.
Previously: Rocket Lab Will Attempt to Recover First Stages Using a Helicopter
Related Stories
Small satellite launcher Rocket Lab unveils plans to recover its rockets midair with helicopters
Small satellite launcher Rocket Lab is following in the footsteps of rocket behemoth SpaceX with plans to make its rockets reusable. But Rocket Lab won't be landing its vehicles in the same fashion as SpaceX's Falcon 9. Instead, the company plans to catch its rockets in mid-air with a helicopter after they've fallen back to Earth.
Rocket Lab announced these plans today at the Small Satellite Conference in Utah. The company says the goal is to increase the frequency of launches of its primary rocket, called the Electron. By saving the vehicles when they return to Earth, Rocket Lab hopes to turn them around and re-launch them again as soon as possible. And that shouldn't be too difficult since some of the vehicle's machinery runs on electric batteries.
[...] To recover its rockets, Rocket Lab envisions a complicated system involving ships, helicopters, and parachutes. After launch, the Electron rocket will ascend and break apart in space, with the upper portion of the rocket continuing deeper into orbit and the lower portion falling back to the planet. That bottom portion of the rocket will reenter Earth's atmosphere — hopefully intact — and then deploy a parachute to slow its fall. In the meantime, a helicopter will take off from a ship and attempt to snag the rocket's parachute in the sky. The helicopter will then deposit the rocket back at the ship.
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: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 07 2019, @12:59AM
What sort of idiot tries to compete with Musk. This is clearly a money-laundering front for the mafia.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 07 2019, @08:51PM (1 child)
Musk showed that it is viable. Following a viable plan is just good business. Now if we can just kill the SLS so NASA actually has the funds to use these rockets for something, that would be golden.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by takyon on Saturday December 07 2019, @09:16PM
Musk's F9 and FH are pretty cheap even without reusability.
Partial reusability is a nice feat that could help Rocket Lab, and Rocket Lab is definitely shaping up to be one of the most successful smallsat launchers. But full reusability will completely dominate everything, and it is out of the reach of smaller rockets. The Electron rocket could be made fully obsolete by Starship.
Starship vs. SLS. It's a matter of timing and getting it proven. But it's likely that SLS will be sent to space at least 2-3 times, and money has been infused into the SLS pork hole to try and prevent further delays [soylentnews.org].
White House Budget Request Would Move Launches from SLS to Commercial Providers [soylentnews.org]
Lunar Gateway Could be Killed to get More Money for Space Launch System [soylentnews.org]
NASA Orders 10 SLS Rockets; Return to the Moon Likely Delayed to 2028 [soylentnews.org]
It's kind of wild to think that the Lunar Gateway, a station designed for the sole purpose of justifying SLS's existence, could be cancelled to dump more short-term funding to the SLS pork hole. But it might be the right move (for Boeing and friends) if Starship is coming to annihilate SLS and stop the gravy train. Just redirect as much money into the project as possible before it gets shitcanned.
Here's the latest:
New NASA human spaceflight leader calls SLS “mandatory” for return to the moon [spacenews.com]
That's cute, but everything is subject to change. Nothing is actually mandatory.
The good news is that Starship's existence is now acknowledged by NASA and it is being officially bid to land payloads on the Moon. But to get a clean kill we need to see Starship reaching orbit, launching payloads, landing on the Moon, etc. within the next 2 years, and continued delays for SLS.
Starship Mk1 and Mk2 are getting scrapped after that test mishap. Who knows when Mk3 will be ready, but decreasing the time needed to build each Raptor engine is probably a bigger deal right now than actually building the spacecraft.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]