![\"Rocket](\"https:\/\/cdn.satnow.com\/news\/Rocket_Lab_Cover_637983044548389211.jpg\")
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Rocket Lab USA, one of the global leaders in launch services and space systems, has announced that it has signed a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with the United States Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM) to explore the possibility of using the Company\u2019s Neutron and Electron launch vehicles to transport cargo around the world. The agreement will also see Rocket Lab explore using Photon spacecraft to establish on-orbit cargo depots and deliver re-entry capability.<\/p>\n
The CRADA enables the collaborative investigation between USTRANSCOM and Rocket Lab to explore Neutron, Electron, and Photon capabilities, informing the Rocket Cargo program led by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) and the U.S. Space Force. Rocket Cargo is one of the Air Force\u2019s Vanguard programs designed to advance emerging systems and concepts through prototyping and experimentation to deliver remarkable new capabilities. The program seeks to explore the viability of space launches to deliver improvements in delivery cost and speed compared to existing air cargo operations.<\/p>\n
\u201cPoint-to-point space transportation offers a new ability to move equipment quickly around the world in hours, enabling a faster response to global emergencies and natural disasters.,\u201d says Rocket Lab founder and CEO, Peter Beck. \u201cElectron is already a proven and reliable launch vehicle and we\u2019ve demonstrated its adaptability with programs like reusability and our recent CAPSTONE mission to the Moon for NASA, so we\u2019re no stranger to exploring expanded use cases for Electron. Neutron builds on Electron\u2019s capability with a much larger payload capacity, and it\u2019s designed for frequent reflight, making it a perfect fit to enable fast deployment of vital resources while eliminating the en-route stops and air refueling required by air cargo solutions. Topping it off with Photon cargo depots on orbit provides a well-rounded approach to the future of rapid global deployment. We\u2019re excited to be collaborating with USTRANSCOM on this forward-thinking, innovative research program that could ultimately shift the way the Department of Defense considers logistics response options.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cRocket Lab USA will help the Federal government understand commercial rocket capabilities for future logistics missions,\u201d added Mr. Jamie Malak, the CRADA\u2019s government project lead at AFRL. \u201cUSTRANSCOM and its global Combatant Command customers have been constrained to logistics at the speed of conventional aircraft or often far less for their entire history. Now we can look to transport critical military cargo an order of magnitude faster than ever before. We will explore how to integrate rocket cargo systems in Defense logistics processes and how to make space transportation a reliable and practical option for operations of the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
Click here to learn about the Neutron Launch vehicle from Rocket Lab.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rocket Lab USA, one of the global leaders in launch services and space systems, has announced that it has signed a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with the United States Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM) to explore the possibility of using the Company\u2019s Neutron and Electron launch vehicles to transport cargo around the world. The agreement […]<\/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":[25,54],"class_list":["post-9187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-launch","tag-launch-vehicle-platforms"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9187"}],"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=9187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9187\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}