Tag: Rocket Lab

NASA Selects Rocket Lab for Mars Sample Return Study

Space News reports, “NASA has awarded a contract to Rocket Lab to study alternative concepts for Mars Sample Return (MSR), joining several other efforts to improve the cost and schedule of the program. Rocket Lab said Oct. 7 that it received a contract to study what it called ‘a simplified, end-to-end mission concept’ for MSR that would deliver samples being collected by the Perseverance rover to Earth for a ‘fraction’ of currently projected costs, estimated to be as high as $11 billion, and several years earlier than 2040.”
Full Story (Space News)

Rocket Lab to Launch a Private Earth-imaging Satellite This Morning

SPACE reports, “Rocket Lab plans to launch an Earth-observing radar satellite this morning (Dec. 20). An Electron rocket is scheduled to lift off from Rocket Lab’s New Zealand site today, during a 75-minute window that opens at 9:00 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT; 3:00 a.m. on Dec. 21 local New Zealand time).”
Full Story (SPACE)

Update from SPACE at 9:45 a.m. ET: “Today’s launch attempt was scrubbed with around 17 minutes left in the countdown. Rocket Lab has not yet set a new launch date.”

Rocket Lab Moves Forward with Suborbital Hypersonic Technology Initiative

Seeking Alpha reports, “Rocket Lab USA announced late on Tuesday that it successfully launched a suborbital mission in November to test hypersonic technology for the Department of Defense. Hypersonic technology refers to vehicles and systems capable of traveling at speeds exceeding Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound12. These systems operate in a unique aerodynamic regime characterized by extreme temperatures, thin shock layers, and complex air flows.”
Full Story (Seeking Alpha)

Rocket Lab Marks Milestone with 50th Electron Rocket Launch

Spaceflight Now reports, “Rocket Lab successfully reached a milestone that few commercial rockets achieved and at a pace that outperformed its competition. The company launched its 50th Electron rocket to date just seven years after the vehicle’s debut in May 2017 … Onboard the rocket were five satellites on behalf of France-based internet of things company, Kinéis … All five on this flight were successfully deployed.”
Full Story (Spaceflight Now)

 

Videos

RocketLab 50th Electron Launch
(The Launch Pad; YouTube)

Rocket Lab’s Electron Rocket Launches on Space Debris Removal Mission

Spaceflight Now reports “a small satellite that will inspect a discarded rocket body in orbit lifted off Sunday/Monday on a mission to develop techniques for removing space debris.”  Built by Japan-based Astroscale, the satellite “launched atop a Rocket Lab Electron” rocket from New Zealand at 9:52 a.m. EST
Full Story (Spaceflight Now)

 

Video

Rocket Lab – Electron Launch, 18 February 2024
(Space Affairs; YouTube)

NASA and Rocket Lab Launch Solar Sail

The New Zealand Herald reports, “NASA has launched its new solar sail mission from Mahia Peninsula. Once at a Sun-synchronous orbit, about 1000 km above Earth, the spacecraft will deploy its sails and use the pressure of sunlight for propulsion, instead of rocket fuel. If the microwave oven-sized CubeSat is successfully deployed, the operation would be a precursor to larger-scale missions to the Moon and Mars, NASA said.”
Full Story (New Zealand Herald)

Rocket Lab Launches NROL-123 Mission in 4th US Liftoff

SPACE reports, “Rocket Lab launched from the U.S. for the fourth time ever Thursday morning (March 21), sending mystery payloads aloft for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO).”  The NROL-123 mission, or “Live and Let Fly,” as Rocket Lab has designated it, launched at 3:25 a.m. EDT from the company’s Launch Complex 2 at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.
Full Story (SPACE)

 

 

 

Videos

RocketLab Electron 46 | NROL-123
(The Launch Pad; YouTube)

Rocket Lab Launches NASA Hurricane Hunter Satellites

SPACE reports that the first two satellites “in NASA’s new hurricane-hunting constellation have taken to the skies.” The two cubesats, the “founding members of the agency’s TROPICS network, launched today (May 7) atop a Rocket Lab Electron rocket, which lifted off from the company’s New Zealand site at 9 p.m. EDT (0100 GMT and 1 p.m. on May 8 local New Zealand time).” The TROPICS constellation (short for “Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation Structure and Storm Intensity with a Constellation of Smallsats”) “will consist of four cubesats in low Earth orbit.” Rocket Lab will “launch the other two satellites about two weeks from now, if all goes according to plan.”
Full Story (SPACE);  Watch launch (Rocket Lab’s YouTube channel).

Rocket Lab Works to Challenge SpaceX

Gizmodo reports Rocket Lab is working to challenge SpaceX, which currently has a stranglehold on the spaceflight industry. Rocket Lab CFO Adam Spice said, “We are positioning Neutron to compete directly with the Falcon 9,” CNBC reported. The projected cost “of flying with Neutron, a fully reusable medium-lift rocket that could perform its first launch next year, is slated at $50 million.” In comparison, SpaceX’s price per flight is typically $67 million. Rocket Lab has differentiated itself by developing 3D-printing technology and now performs “multi-continent launches of its Electron rocket.” Now, with its Neutron Rocket, Rocket Lab “is eyeing the medium-lift sector; the future rocket, in addition to delivering various payloads, is being positioned as a vehicle for transporting astronauts and cargo to the International Space Station.”
Full Story (Gizmodo)

NASA Sends 4 CubeSats into LEO

ExecutiveBiz reports that NASA “has deployed a set of four small satellites to low Earth orbit aboard Rocket Lab’s Electron launch vehicle to test autonomous spacecraft swarm technologies in space.” The 6U-sized CubeSats “lifted off from Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand and will demonstrate their ability to conduct maneuver planning, communications networking, relative navigation and autonomous positioning as a group with minimal supervision from ground mission controllers, NASA said Monday.” Funded by NASA’s Small Spacecraft Technology, the six-month Starling mission “is expected to pave the way toward advancing autonomous robotic swarms for future space and lunar science and exploration missions.”
Full Story (ExecutiveBiz)

Rocket Lab Launches First US Mission

Reuters reports that Rocket Lab “launched its first mission from American soil on Tuesday, kicking off an expansion of the company’s launch business that adds to a surge in private rocket activity at U.S. space ports.” The Long Beach, California-based company’s workhorse “Electron rocket, an expendable launcher standing 40 feet (12 meters) tall, lifted off at 6 p.m. EST from its new launch pad at the NASA-operated Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Virginia.” The mission “marked Rocket Lab’s first outside its flagship launchsite on the Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand, where the company has carried out all 32 previous Electron missions since the rocket’s debut in 2017.”
Full Story (Reuters)

 

 Video

Rocket Lab Launches First Electron mission from Virginia, Tuesday, January 24, at 6 p.m. EST from Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Virginia.
(NASASpaceflight; YouTube)

Rocket Lab Shifts NASA Cubesat Launches from Virginia to New Zealand

Space News reports that Rocket Lab has relocated a pair of Electron launches of NASA storm-monitoring cubesats from LC-2 in Wallops Island, Virginia, to LC-1 New Zealand. Rocket Lab’s launches will each carry two TROPICS cubsats. The first launch – dubbed “Rocket Like a Hurricane” by the company – is scheduled for no earlier than April 30. The second – dubbed “Coming to a Storm Near You” – is scheduled for May 15. Each launch will carry two TROPICS cubesats. The article adds that the company “did not disclose why the launches could not take place from LC-2 as originally planned other than that the shift to New Zealand would ensure they would launch in the second quarter. However, the change does avoid a potential conflict with a Northrop Grumman Antares launch of a Cygnus cargo mission to the International Space Station.”
Full Story (Space News)

Rocket Lab Launches NOAA-Funded Wildlife Tracking Satellite

Spaceflight Now reported, “Rocket Lab launched an Electron rocket Friday from its privately-run spaceport in New Zealand, boosting a 260-pound satellite into orbit on a $64 million NOAA-funded mission to relay environmental data from remote weather stations and help track global wildlife movements.” The mission is the latest in a line of Argos environmental data relay satellite launches, and is a partnership between General Atomics, NOAA, and CNES (the French space agency). The mission sent the GAzelle satellite into a polar orbit about 466 miles above Earth, where it is planned to operate for five years.
Full Story (Spaceflight Now)

Rocket Lab Successfully Conducts Two Launches Within 24 Hours

TechCrunch reports, “Rocket Lab set a new speed record for launch turnaround time, successfully executing two Electron missions in 24 hours. The company added in a statement that this is also the first time any launch operator has completed a mission from each hemisphere within that time frame.  Rocket Lab, which was founded in New Zealand, maintains a launch pad there and at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport in Virginia.”
Full Story (TechCrunch)

Rocket Lab Preparing for First Launch from US

ExecutiveGov reported that Rocket Lab completed a “wet dress rehearsal” at its Launch Complex 2(LC-2) in Wallops Island, Virginia. The company’s representatives said in a statement Thursday, “With this major milestone complete, the Electron launch vehicle, launch team and the LC-2 pad systems are now ready for Rocket Lab’s first launch from US soil.” Rocket Lab’s autonomous flight termination system still needs to be certified by NASA, and a date cannot be set until then.
Full Story (ExecutiveGov)

Rocket Lab Launches NROL-162 Payload into Orbit

SPACE reports that Rocket Lab has delivered “another spacecraft to orbit for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), which operates the nation’s fleet of spy satellites.” The Rocket Lab Electron booster “topped with the NROL-162 spacecraft lifted off from the company’s New Zealand site on Wednesday (July 13) at 2:30 a.m. EDT (0630 GMT; 6:30 p.m. local time in New Zealand).” About an hour later, “the Electron’s ‘kick stage’ deployed NROL-162 into Earth orbit as planned, Rocket Lab founder and CEO Peter Beck confirmed via Twitter.” Rocket Lab wrote Wednesday that NROL-162 “will strengthen the NRO’s ability to provide a wide range of timely intelligence information to national decision makers and intelligence analysts to protect the United States’ vital interests and support humanitarian efforts worldwide.” NROL-162 is a “joint effort of the NRO and the Australian Department of Defence.”
Full Story (SPACE)
 
 
 

 

 Video

Rocket Lab’s NROL-162 Launch, July 13, 2022
(The Launch Pad via YouTube)

CAPSTONE Launched Tuesday Morning

CNET News reports that NASA’s Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE) was launched from the Rocket Lab launch facility in New Zealand on Tuesday, “paving the way for Artemis astronauts to return to the moon in the coming years.” CAPSTONE “will be testing new navigation systems and trying out the halo-shaped orbit around the moon that will one day be occupied by NASA’s Lunar Gateway. The Gateway will be a sort of small space station circling the moon that will be used for staging for Artemis missions to the lunar surface.”
Full Story (CNET News)
 
 
 

 

 Video

Official NASA Broadcast of CAPTSTONE launch from New Zealand, June 28, 2022
(NASA via YouTube)

Rocket Lab Successfully Launches BlackSky Gen-3 Satellite

Spaceflight Now reports, “Update 7:16 p.m. EST (0016 UTC): Rocket Lab confirms a successful payload deployment. Rocket Lab (Nasdaq: RKLB) completed its second Electron rocket of the month and its 60th to date. The flight carried with it the first of BlackSky’s Gen-3 Earth imaging and analytics gathering satellites. Liftoff of the mission, dubbed ‘Fasten Your Space Belts,’ from Launch Complex 1 in Mahia, New Zealand happened at 12:17 p.m. NZDT on Feb. 19 (6:17 p.m. EST, 2317 UCT on Feb. 18).”
Full Story (Spaceflight Now)

Germany’s OroraTech Partners with Rocket Lab for “Responsive Launch”

Spaceflight Now reports, “A new batch of eight fire detection satellites are getting ready to launch into low Earth orbit in what Rocket Lab (Nasdaq: RKLB) described as a ‘responsive launch.’ The dedicated flight is expected to launch from New Zealand in ‘just a few weeks’ and will be the first OTC-P1 satellites deployed on behalf of German company, Orora Technologies (OroraTech).”
Full Story (Spaceflight Now)