{"id":14603,"date":"2017-05-21T00:14:53","date_gmt":"2017-05-20T16:14:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/small-satellite-launcher-set-for-first-orbital-test-flight-this-week\/"},"modified":"2017-05-21T00:14:53","modified_gmt":"2017-05-20T16:14:53","slug":"small-satellite-launcher-set-for-first-orbital-test-flight-this-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/small-satellite-launcher-set-for-first-orbital-test-flight-this-week\/","title":{"rendered":"Small satellite launcher set for first orbital test flight this week"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Electron rocket at Rocket Lab\u2019s Launch Complex 1 on Mahia Peninsula on New Zealand\u2019s North Island during a May 16 wet dress rehearsal. Credit: Rocket Lab<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The first test flight of Rocket Lab\u2019s commercially-developed Electron launcher was held up by weather Sunday, but conditions could improve for a launch attempt Monday from New Zealand to place an instrumented rocket stage into Earth orbit in a demonstration of the company\u2019s low-cost delivery system for lightweight satellites.<\/p>\n

The two-stage rocket\u2019s launch window opens at 2100 GMT (5 p.m. EDT) Sunday, or 9 a.m. Monday in New Zealand, but officials caution the test flight could blast off any time through June 1.<\/p>\n

Launch managers will assess the readiness of the Electron booster, ground facilities and weather before attempting a launch, according to Rocket Lab, a U.S.-New Zealand company headquartered in Huntington Beach, California, with a design and engineering office in Auckland.<\/p>\n

Rocket Lab said Sunday that high winds prevented rollout of the Electron rocket to the launch pad in New Zealand in time for a countdown Monday, local time. The earliest the launcher could take off is now Tuesday morning in New Zealand, or Monday afternoon, U.S. time.<\/p>\n

The 55-foot-tall (17-meter) Electron rocket is designed to place small satellites into orbit for commercial and government owners. Rocket Lab says it will charge $4.9 million per flight, significantly less than any other launch provider flying today, and offer a dedicated ride for payloads that currently must ride piggyback with a larger payload.<\/p>\n

The maiden flight of the Electron, christened \u201cIt\u2019s a Test,\u201d is the first of three test launches Rocket Lab plans in the coming months.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are all incredibly excited to get to this point,\u201d said Peter Beck, founder and CEO of Rocket Lab, in a statement. \u201cOur talented team has been preparing for years for this opportunity and we want to do our best to get it right. Our number one priority is to gather enough data and experience to prepare for a commercial phase. Only then can we can start delivering on our mission to make space more accessible.\u201d<\/p>\n

With money from venture capital funds in Silicon Valley and New Zealand, along with a strategic investment from Lockheed Martin, Rocket Lab completed the design and qualification of the Electron rocket with less than $100 million since the company was established in 2006, according to Beck.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve done a lot in a short period of time with a little,\u201d Beck said in a March interview with Spaceflight Now.<\/p>\n

Rocket Lab\u2019s progress was marked with test launches of more than 80 sounding rockets since the company\u2019s formation.<\/p>\n

The total money invested in Rocket Lab to date is $148 million, and the company was valued at more than $1 billion during a Series D financing round closed in March.<\/p>\n

Rocket Lab\u2019s launch base, dubbed Launch Complex 1, is located on Mahia Peninsula on the east coast of New Zealand\u2019s North Island. The facility \u2014 the first privately-operated orbital launch range \u2014 sits on an outcrop overlooking the Pacific Ocean, a site Rocket Lab says allows it to put safely place satellites in a range of orbits, including sun-synchronous perches preferred by Earth observation craft, without flying over land.<\/p>\n

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Mahia Peninsula is located on the east coast of New Zealand\u2019s North Island, around 240 miles (380 kilometers) southwest of Auckland. Credit: Google Maps\/Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Federal Aviation Administration is the regulatory agency overseeing the launch base and Electron missions because Rocket Lab is headquartered in the United States.<\/p>\n

The FAA approved a launch license for the first three Electron orbital test flights May 15 after a series of countdown rehearsals that involved loading the rocket with propellants and checking its ignition and destruct systems.<\/p>\n

The target for the Electron\u2019s debut launch is an orbit between 186 miles (300 kilometers) and 310 miles (500 kilometers) in altitude, inclined 83 degrees to Earth\u2019s equator.<\/p>\n

But the rocket will not carry any commercial satellites. Only an inert payload and sensors to monitor the performance of the Electron will be aboard the inaugural mission.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all instrumentation,\u201d Beck told Spaceflight Now. \u201cIt\u2019s a giant flying laboratory. We\u2019ll learn what we got right and what we got wrong and roll that information into the next vehicle, so that we can come out of the test flight program with three flights under our belt and move into our commercial flight program with our customers knowing that the vehicle is very well understood.\u201d<\/p>\n

More than 20,000 channels of instrumentation are on the first Electron rocket.<\/p>\n

Future Electron missions could loft up to 330 pounds (150 kilograms) of payload to a circular sun-synchronous polar orbit 310 miles above Earth.<\/p>\n

A Rocket Lab spokesperson said the company will provide daily updates on the status of the launch beginning Sunday, but Rocket Lab does not plan to provide a live video stream of the flight.<\/p>\n

\u201cDue to the likelihood of postponements, test launch attempts will not be live streamed, but video footage of a launch and other press materials will be made available as quickly as possible following the launch attempt,\u201d Rocket Lab said in a press kit detailing the launch.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring this first launch attempt, it is possible we will scrub multiple attempts as we wait until we are ready and conditions are favorable,\u201d Beck said.<\/p>\n

Made of black carbon composite materials, the 3.9-foot-diameter (1.2-meter) Electron rocket is powered by Rutherford engines, a powerplant developed by Rocket Lab engineers that burns a mixture of kerosene and liquid oxygen.<\/p>\n

Each Rutherford engine generates around 4,600 pounds of thrust, using battery-powered pumps to cycle the engine\u2019s liquid propellants, an innovation Rocket Lab describes as \u201centirely new\u201d in rocket propulsion.<\/p>\n

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

Nine Rutherford engines drive the Electron\u2019s first stage, producing around 34,500 pounds of thrust at liftoff, and powering up to 41,500 pounds of thrust later in the flight. A single Rutherford engine is on the Electron\u2019s second stage.<\/p>\n