{"id":18940,"date":"2017-05-25T21:08:32","date_gmt":"2017-05-25T13:08:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/rocket-lab-celebrates-coming-oh-so-close-to-orbit-with-its-maiden-electron-launch\/"},"modified":"2017-05-25T21:08:32","modified_gmt":"2017-05-25T13:08:32","slug":"rocket-lab-celebrates-coming-oh-so-close-to-orbit-with-its-maiden-electron-launch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/rocket-lab-celebrates-coming-oh-so-close-to-orbit-with-its-maiden-electron-launch\/","title":{"rendered":"Rocket Lab celebrates coming oh so close to orbit with its maiden Electron launch"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_334884\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-334884\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-334884\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/170525-rocketlab-630x356.jpg\" alt=\"Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck\" width=\"630\" height=\"356\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/170525-rocketlab-630x356.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/170525-rocketlab-768x434.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/170525-rocketlab.jpg 904w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-334884\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck cheers the first Electron rocket launch. (Rocket Lab via YouTube)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Rocket Lab didn\u2019t quite make it to orbit on its first try, but the company\u2019s CEO says he\u2019s \u201cvery happy\u201d with the Electron rocket\u2019s performance nevertheless.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe got a lot further than certainly we expected,\u201d founder and CEO Peter Beck told reporters today, hours after the maiden launch from Rocket Lab\u2019s pad on New Zealand\u2019s Mahia Peninsula.<\/p>\n<p>Beck repeatedly stressed that the company still has to analyze the data from the flight. However, he said a preliminary review indicated that the two-stage rocket\u2019s performance was nominal until second-stage fairing separation.<\/p>\n<p>He told GeekWire that the launch team had targeted a 300- to 500-kilometer orbit (200 to 300 miles) for its first test flight, nicknamed \u201cIt\u2019s a Test.\u201d Beck&nbsp;estimated that the second stage made it to a height of 250 kilometers (155 miles) before descending again on a suborbital trajectory.<\/p>\n<p>Today Rocket Lab released a video of the countdown and launch that had a decidedly celebratory feel, highlighting the cheers in Mission Control when the rocket rose spaceward:<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"It's a Test - Launch Day Video\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/VA_8HPsua0c?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Beck insisted that the test \u201cputs us in a very, very strong position for the next test flight,\u201d which will be scheduled after the data from the first flight has been fully reviewed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe second vehicle is already in the factory,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Rocket Lab\u2019s plan is to conduct at least two more test flights before trying&nbsp;to send customers\u2019 payloads into orbit. Those customers include NASA, Moon Express, Spire, Planet and Seattle-based Spaceflight.<\/p>\n<p>Beck said the reaction so far from customers has been \u201cecstatic.\u201d Spaceflight sent along&nbsp;\u201cCongrats!\u201d and \u201cBravo!\u201d in a pair of tweets. \u201cGreat to see the progress!\u201d&nbsp;Jodi Sorensen, Spaceflight Industries\u2019 vice president of marketing and communications, said in yet another tweet.<\/p>\n<p>Video from the first launch was not live-streamed because Rocket Lab wanted to ease the pressure on the launch team, Beck said. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of pressure when the world is watching,\u201d he&nbsp;explained. Future launches are likely to be streamed, he said.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Rocket Lab Test Flight 1: View from the rocket #ItsaTest\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/3vE2AnwJ2Qs?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The first launch&nbsp;was postponed several times due to weather, but Beck said Rocket Lab will be less wary about the weather once the flight test program is finished. \u201cThere\u2019s no point in pushing to the limit on weather conditions\u201d for test flights, he said.<\/p>\n<p>Beck told GeekWire that he expected the flight program to proceed quickly enough to send Moon Express\u2019 lander on the first leg of its trip to the moon by the end of this year.<\/p>\n<p>Eventually, Rocket Lab aims to send small satellites into orbit at least once a week, at a price as low as $5 million per launch. The company is using cutting-edge technologies such as 3-D printing and carbon-composite fabrication to reduce costs.<\/p>\n<p>In March, Rocket Lab announced a $75 million funding round that set the Los Angeles-based company\u2019s valuation above $1 billion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck cheers the first Electron rocket launch. (Rocket Lab via YouTube) Rocket Lab didn\u2019t quite make it to orbit on its first try, but the company\u2019s CEO says he\u2019s \u201cvery happy\u201d with the Electron rocket\u2019s performance nevertheless. \u201cWe got a lot further than certainly we expected,\u201d founder and CEO Peter Beck [&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":[1596,544],"class_list":["post-18940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-new-zealand","tag-rocket-lab"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18940"}],"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=18940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18940\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}