{"id":19623,"date":"2015-08-10T20:34:36","date_gmt":"2015-08-10T12:34:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/reserve-a-launch-for-your-satellite-online-rocket-lab-can-make-it-so\/"},"modified":"2015-08-10T20:34:36","modified_gmt":"2015-08-10T12:34:36","slug":"reserve-a-launch-for-your-satellite-online-rocket-lab-can-make-it-so","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/reserve-a-launch-for-your-satellite-online-rocket-lab-can-make-it-so\/","title":{"rendered":"Reserve a launch for your satellite online? Rocket Lab can make it so"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Peter
Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck aims to have the company\u2019s Electron rocket blasting off from a New Zealand launch site within a year. (Credit: Rocket Lab)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The CubeSat revolution has come to this: Now you can make an online reservation for a nanosatellite launch almost as easily as booking a flight from Seattle to Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

L.A.-based Rocket Lab unveiled its launch booking system today at the annual SmallSat conference in Logan, Utah. \u201cIt\u2019s really about trying to break down the barriers and make space more accessible,\u201d Peter Beck, the company\u2019s CEO, explained during a GeekWire interview.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s one more small step toward turning the satellite business into a turnkey operation for researchers, entrepreneurs, students and Kickstarter-savvy enthusiasts. Seattle\u2019s Spaceflight Industries already provides a menu of launch services, organized by satellite size and timing. Rocket Lab kicks it up a notch by letting potential customers choose their spot, right down to selecting the \u201cseat\u201d for their satellite.<\/p>\n

\"Rocket
Rocket Lab\u2019s reservation system lets customers select their launch date, orbital parameters (sun-synchronous vs. 45-degree inclination) and the \u201cseat\u201d for their satellite. (Credit: Rocket Lab)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The prices range from between $50,000 and $90,000 for a 1U CubeSat (measuring 4 by 4 by 4 inches) to between $180,000 and $250,000 for a 3U satellite (4 by 4 by 12 inches). Where the price falls within those ranges will depend on the available space and the demand.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs it comes closer to a flight, if we\u2019re having trouble filling seats, we may discount those flights to make sure they\u2019re full,\u201d Beck said. \u201cIt\u2019s very similar to an airline.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rocket Lab\u2019s departures aren\u2019t yet as routine as an airline\u2019s. In fact, they haven\u2019t even started. The company \u2014 which is backed by Khosla Ventures, Lockheed Martin and other heavy-hitters \u2014 is still testing its Electron propulsion system and working on its launch pad on New Zealand\u2019s South Island.<\/p>\n

Even in the best-case scenario for flight tests, commercial operations won\u2019t begin until mid-2016. Nevertheless, some flights are already nearly sold out, thanks to early reservations by yet-to-be-identified customers, Beck said.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=cAqaheHHIlQ<\/p>\n

What are those customers launching? They\u2019re not necessarily CubeSats: The two-stage Electron rocket is built to put a satellite as heavy as 220 pounds (100 kilograms) into a 310-mile-high (500-kilometer-high) orbit for $4.9 million. Those are the kinds of satellites that could be used to build a low-cost communication constellation, similar to the multibillion-dollar Internet access networks being developed by SpaceX and OneWeb.<\/p>\n

\"pluto\"
\nScience journalist Alan Boyle<\/strong> is the author of “The Case for Pluto: How a Little Planet Made A Big Difference.”<\/p>\n

CubeSats are becoming increasingly capable as well, thanks to the miniaturization of electronic components. Potential applications range from Earth imaging, to weather forecasting, to even more ambitious tasks. For example, Redmond-based Planetary Resources is developing a line of low-cost space telescopes and asteroid-hunting spacecraft based on the CubeSat design. Just last month, the venture\u2019s first demonstration spacecraft, a 3U CubeSat, was ejected into orbit from the International Space Station.<\/p>\n

Rocket Lab\u2019s Electron is designed to deploy CubeSats automatically after the second stage reaches orbit. \u201cWe put in this CubeSat system because we\u2019ve had so many inquiries,\u201d Beck said.<\/p>\n

Beck acknowledged that using Rocket Lab\u2019s reservation system isn\u2019t quite as simple as using Travelocity. You can\u2019t plug in your credit card number to pay the fare; instead, Rocket Lab has to follow up with you offline to work out the payment details. But who knows? Someday, the cost of launching a CubeSat may be cheap enough to cover with your frequent-flier miles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck aims to have the company\u2019s Electron rocket blasting off from a New Zealand launch site within a year. (Credit: Rocket Lab) The CubeSat revolution has come to this: Now you can make an online reservation for a nanosatellite launch almost as easily as booking a flight from Seattle to Los Angeles. L.A.-based Rocket […]<\/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":[1608,4727,20],"class_list":["post-19623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-cubesats","tag-rockets","tag-satellite"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19623"}],"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=19623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19623\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}