{"id":14583,"date":"2017-05-30T22:00:55","date_gmt":"2017-05-30T14:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/rocket-lab-chief-says-maiden-launch-result-maintains-pace-for-commercial-service\/"},"modified":"2017-05-30T22:00:55","modified_gmt":"2017-05-30T14:00:55","slug":"rocket-lab-chief-says-maiden-launch-result-maintains-pace-for-commercial-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/rocket-lab-chief-says-maiden-launch-result-maintains-pace-for-commercial-service\/","title":{"rendered":"Rocket Lab chief says maiden launch result maintains pace for commercial service"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/218907522\" width=\"675\" height=\"380\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Video credit: Rocket Lab<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>The result of last week\u2019s inaugural test flight of Rocket Lab\u2019s Electron satellite launcher from New Zealand, which reached space but was unable to enter orbit, positions the company for two more demonstration missions in the coming months before the privately-operated booster enters commercial service by the end of the year, Rocket Lab\u2019s chief executive said.<\/p>\n<p>The 55-foot-tall (17-meter) Electron rocket, propelled by nine kerosene-fueled engines, lifted off Thursday from Rocket Lab\u2019s space base on the tip of Mahia Peninsula, a rocky outcrop on the east cost of New Zealand\u2019s North Island.<\/p>\n<p>Peter Beck, founder and CEO of Rocket Lab, told reporters after Thursday\u2019s launch that engineers were analyzing data to determine what went wrong to prevent the Electron from entering orbit.<\/p>\n<p>Nevertheless, Beck said Rocket Lab\u2019s team was \u201cecstatic\u201d following the test flight, which he said proceeded normally until some time after ignition of the second stage\u2019s single engine.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe had a really good lift off from the tower, a good first stage burn, we went through Max-Q, which is the area where the rocket experiences the maximum structural loads,\u201d Beck said. \u201cWe had a good first stage burn, we got a good stage separation, a good second stage ignition, and we got all through the fairing separation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re really happy with what we achieved \u2026 For a test flight, we got a lot further than certainly we expected, and we captured all of the major events through the flight,\u201d Beck said.<\/p>\n<p>The Electron rocket is designed to deliver small satellites and clusters of CubeSats into orbit at relatively low cost. According to Rocket Lab, the launcher can carry up to 330 pounds (150 kilograms) of payloads to a 310-mile-high (500-kilometer) sun-synchronous polar orbit, a perch preferred by many Earth-imaging spacecraft.<\/p>\n<p>And Rocket Lab says it can do it for $4.9 million per launch, significantly less than prices of other rockets.<\/p>\n<p>Buoyed by $148 million in venture capital financing and investments from Lockheed Martin and the government of New Zealand, Rocket Lab announced the Electron program in 2014 after launching more than 80 suborbital sounding rockets since the company\u2019s founding in 2006.<\/p>\n<p>Beck said Rocket Lab\u2019s focus now is on analyzing data collected on Thursday\u2019s test launch, which did not have a commercial payload on-board but aimed for Earth orbit. The second of the company\u2019s three planned Electron test flights is expected later this year.<\/p>\n<p><iframe id=\"twitter-widget-0\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowtransparency=\"true\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" class=\"\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden; width: 0px; height: 0px; display: block; flex-grow: 1;\" title=\"X Post\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/embed\/Tweet.html?dnt=false&amp;embedId=twitter-widget-0&amp;features=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%3D%3D&amp;frame=false&amp;hideCard=false&amp;hideThread=false&amp;id=868995011609739264&amp;lang=en&amp;origin=https%3A%2F%2Fspaceflightnow.com%2F2017%2F05%2F30%2Frocket-lab-chief-says-maiden-launch-result-maintains-pace-for-commercial-service%2F&amp;sessionId=cabeb46ff668e4467da9e9f3d348ea3834d25c1d&amp;theme=light&amp;widgetsVersion=6a3ad42b224df%3A1778106238597&amp;width=550px\" data-tweet-id=\"868995011609739264\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-video\" data-lang=\"en\" data-twitter-extracted-i1782700984561723957=\"true\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Our team is hard at work analyzing the extensive data captured during our #ItsaTest launch! pic.twitter.com\/2Ri23FIvAe<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Rocket Lab (@RocketLabUSA) May 29, 2017<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async=\"\" src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe second vehicle is already in the factory,\u201d Beck said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got over 20,000 channels of data to go through, so we want to go through the data a little bit, and we\u2019ll go through that very thoroughly, learn what we need to learn, and roll the next one out. I wouldn\u2019t expect that to be sooner than a couple of months.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Headquartered in Southern California with a factory, mission control center and launch base in New Zealand, Rocket Lab is one of several companies vying in the small satellite launch market.<\/p>\n<p>Virgin Orbit, a spinoff of the space tourism developer Virgin Galactic, is working on the air-dropped LauncherOne project at a factory in Long Beach, California, with a test flight scheduled as soon as the end of this year. Another company, Vector, also has plans for a satellite satellite booster, but it is further behind Rocket Lab and Virgin Orbit.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to reporters in a conference call, Beck did not offer any speculation on the anomaly that brought down the Electron rocket Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe need to review the data, and we\u2019ll be doing that over the coming weeks, and once we\u2019re clear, we can talk about that,\u201d Beck said. \u201cThere\u2019s some great video footage \u2026 We had a very clean stage separation and a very nice second stage ignition, a very clean fairing separation, so all those critical events were captured.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rocket Lab has launch contracts to deliver CubeSats to orbit for NASA, Planet and Spire Global, plus a rideshare launch agreement with Spaceflight, a Seattle-based company that aggregates batches of small satellites to fly on the same rocket. Moon Express, a contender for the Google Lunar X-Prize, also plans three launches of tiny robotic moon landers on Electron rockets.<\/p>\n<p>After blastoff from Launch Complex 1 at Mahia Peninsula, the Electron turned south over the Pacific Ocean, climbed through a deck clouds and achieved supersonic speeds within about a minute. Nine Rutherford engines, developed by Rocket Lab, powered the booster into the sky on more than 40,000 pounds of thrust, around half the thrust generated by an engine on a Boeing 777 airliner.<\/p>\n<p>The Rutherford engines, one of which also powers the Electron upper stage, use battery-powered pumps to cycle liquid propellants, an innovation Rocket Lab describes as \u201centirely new\u201d in rocket propulsion.<\/p>\n<p>The Electron\u2019s engine, named for the New Zealand-born nuclear physicist Ernest Rutherford, is the first of its type to be primarily 3D-printed. Each Rutherford engine, including its engine chamber, injector, pumps and main propellant valves, can be printed in 24 hours.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEverything we saw in the first stage looked nominal, but we\u2019ll have to go and review the data,\u201d Beck said.<\/p>\n<p>Although the Electron fell short of the speed it needed to enter orbit, Beck said it was not a setback.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe got through all the critical events of an orbital flight, right through past fairing separation, so that puts us in a very, very strong position for the next test flight,\u201d Beck said. \u201cBearing in mind that it\u2019s very rare that a new launch vehicle, especially one from a new start-up company, would reach orbit, we\u2019re very happy with the data that we\u2019ve seen and how far we got on the first test flight.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo that certainly doesn\u2019t put us behind,\u201d Beck said. \u201cIf anything, that puts us well ahead because we were able to get through all of those events and validate all the systems.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Beck added that Rocket Lab intends to reach orbit on the second test flight, and the outcome of Thursday\u2019s mission gives the team more confidence.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is why we have a test flight program, because there\u2019s a tremendous amount of unknowns,\u201d Beck said. \u201cWhen you begin a launch vehicle, obviously, we would always like to get to orbit on the first shot, but that is reserved for a very, very rare group of people in history, nevermind that it\u2019s usually a country thing, not a company thing, so to get all the way past fairing separation, and (have) all those critical events done, we were ecstatic.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rocket Lab shipped the first Electron rocket to its launch base in February, and teams spent the last few months commissioning and testing ground systems needed to pump propellants into the launcher, track the rocket\u2019s flight, and destroy the booster if it strayed off-course.<\/p>\n<p>The company said the launch facility on Mahia Peninsula is the first fully commercial privately-operated orbital-class launch range in the world.<\/p>\n<p>The Federal Aviation Administration has regulatory authority over Rocket Lab\u2019s launch operations because it is a U.S.-based company with intentions to eventually launch from sites in Alaska and Florida. New Zealand aeronautical and maritime agencies were responsible for clearing air and marine traffic for the launch.<\/p>\n<p>Crews from the Pacific Spaceport Complex at Kodiak Island, Alaska, traveled to New Zealand to set up range safety systems for Rocket Lab.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was a huge, huge effort from the team, and all the ground systems,\u201d Beck said. \u201cWe\u2019ve spent probably the last month (doing) a lot of conditioning and fault-finding on all the ground systems. People kind of see these launch towers as lumps of steel and whatnot and think they\u2019re relatively benign, but boy, there\u2019s a lot going on there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Poor weather kept the Electron grounded on three consecutive days before Thursday\u2019s liftoff, giving Rocket Lab\u2019s launch team extra practice on countdown and scrub procedures.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re running a very slick operation now, especially having to delay the launch and having multiple attempts because of weather,\u201d Beck said. \u201cWe certainly got a lot of practice. We did the fueling and detanking, and (practiced) all those operations.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Now attention turns to tune the next Electron rocket to fix the problem that plagued last week\u2019s test flight.<\/p>\n<p>Rocket Lab did not provide a live public video feed of Thursday\u2019s launch, but Beck said the company will \u201cprobably\u201d set up a live webcast for the next test flight.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m sure it won\u2019t be a significant thing that we need to resolve,\u201d Beck said. \u201cWe had great guidance, everything was nominal and down the middle. We\u2019re very, very happy with the vehicle\u2019s performance.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><b><i>Email the author.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Video credit: Rocket Lab The result of last week\u2019s inaugural test flight of Rocket Lab\u2019s Electron satellite launcher from New Zealand, which reached space but was unable to enter orbit, positions the company for two more demonstration missions in the coming months before the privately-operated booster enters commercial service by the end of the year, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[291,545,318,3223,25,1593,1595,1596],"class_list":["post-14583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-commercial-space","tag-electron","tag-faa","tag-its-a-test","tag-launch","tag-launch-complex-1","tag-mahia-peninsula","tag-new-zealand"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14583"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14583\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}