New Zealand launches into space race with 3D-printed rocket

[Hamartia Antidote]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/25/new-zealand-launches-space-race-3d-printed-rocket

Rocket Lab, a Silicon Valley-funded space launch company, on Thursday launched the maiden flight of its battery-powered, 3-D printed rocket from New Zealand’s remote Mahia Peninsula.

“Made it to space. Team delighted,” Rocket Lab said on its official Twitter account.

The successful launch of a low cost, 3D-printed rocket is an important step in the commercial race to bring down financial and logistical barriers to space while also making New Zealand an unlikely space hub.

The Los Angeles and New Zealand-based rocket firm has touted its service as a way for companies to get satellites into orbit regularly.

“Our focus with the Electron has been to develop a reliable launch vehicle that can be manufactured in high volumes. Our ultimate goal is to make space accessible by providing an unprecedented frequency of launch opportunities,” said Peter Beck, Rocket Lab founder and chief executive in a statement.

The firm had spent the past four years preparing for the test launch and last week received the go-ahead from the US Federal Aviation Administration, which is monitoring the flight.

Bad weather had delayed the rocket from taking off three times this week.

New Zealand has created new rocket legislation and set up a space agency in anticipation of becoming a low-cost space hub.

Ships and planes need re-routing every time a rocket is launched, which limits opportunities in crowded US skies, but New Zealand, has only Antarctica to its south. The country is also well-positioned to send satellites bound for a north-to-south orbit around the poles.

But many locals in the predominantly Maori community were not happy with access to public areas blocked.

“People come to Mahia so they can go to the beach and it’s been chopped off now and by the sounds of it one of these rockets are going to be launching one every 30 days so they’ve taken over our lifestyle,” said Mahia farmer Pua Taumata.

But Taumata also said the programme could bring opportunities.

“I’m for technology ... a lot of things could come of it through education. It gives our children something different in their careers. Nobody thought to get into the space industry (before now),” he said.

Rocket Lab is one of about 30 companies and agencies worldwide developing small satellite launchers as an alternative to firms jostling for space on larger launches or paying around $50 million for a dedicated service. The company said in a statement it has now received $148m in funding and is valued in excess of $1bn.

Rocket Lab’s customers include NASA, earth-imaging firm Planet and startups Spire and Moon Express.

The firm will carry out two more tests before it starts commercial operations, slated to begin towards the end of this year.

 

[AZADPAKISTAN2009]

Impressive 3D Printed Rocket!!!

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

Impressive 3D Printed Rocket!!!

Including the engine! They want to do 100 launches a year! That's insane.

 

[bobsm]

Rocket Lab reaches space, but not orbit, on first Electron launch

by Jeff Foust — May 25, 2017

Updated 12:20 p.m. Eastern

WASHINGTON — Rocket Lab, a U.S.-New Zealand company developing the Electron small launch vehicle, declared success on its first launch May 25, although the rocket failed to reach orbit.

In a statement, the company said the Electron lifted off from its private launch complex on New Zealand’s Mahia Peninsula at 12:20 a.m. Eastern (4:20 p.m. local time.) The rocket reached space on an apparent suborbital trajectory three minutes later.

“It was a great flight. We had a great first stage burn, stage separation, second stage ignition and fairing separation,” Rocket Lab Chief Executive Peter Beck said in a statement. “We didn’t quite reach orbit and we’ll be investigating why, however reaching space in our first test puts us in an incredibly strong position to accelerate the commercial phase of our program, deliver our customers to orbit and make space open for business.”

“We’re looking at all our data and trying to find the root cause” for failing to make it to orbit, Beck said in a phone interview a few hours after the launch. “Until we look at the data it’s really hard to say.”

Beck, in a media teleconference later May 25, offered few additional technical details about the launch, but said that the company was pleased with the mission overall. “We’re very, very happy with the vehicle’s performance,” he said. “On this first flight we’re well ahead of where we needed to be.”

Electron is a two-stage vehicle designed to place payloads weighing up to 150 kilograms into sun-synchronous orbit. The first stage is powered by nine Rutherford engines, using liquid oxygen and kerosene propellants, while the second stage uses a single modified Rutherford engine.

As designed, the Electron’s first stage fires for two and a half minutes before separating. The second stage then ignites for a burn lasting nearly five minutes, with payload fairing separation taking place a little more than three minutes after liftoff. The company didn’t disclose in its statement if the timing of those events for this launch matched that plan.

The launch carried only a test payload, including instrumentation to collect data on the launch environment. “It’ll probably take us a couple of months to work through the data,” he said in the interview, before performing another launch. That second Electron vehicle, he said, is already built and sitting in the company’s factory.

“There were a lot of firsts today: building the range and having all that infrastructure work, a great first stage burn,” he said. “We validated and ticked off an awful lot today.”

Rocket Lab is planning three test launches of the Electron before beginning commercial flights. Beck said in a May 23 interview that the company was considering flying some commercial payloads on those later test flights, depending on the performance of the vehicle and instrumentation needs.

Rocket Lab’s customers include a mix of government agencies and companies. NASA awarded the company a launch contract under its Venture Class Launch Services program in October 2015. Moon Express has a contract for multiple launches, with the goal of performing the first launch before the end of this year in order to meet the requirements of the $20 million Google Lunar X Prize. Planet and Spire, two companies operating constellations of cubesats, also have booked launches with the company.

This was the first orbital-class launch to take place from New Zealand. The launch was licensed by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration because the company is headquartered in the United States, although most of its operations are in New Zealand.

The launch site, and coordination with local officials to clear airspace and seas for the launch, worked as planned, but Beck said in the media teleconference it took a “huge effort” to get everything in place. “If anybody has ever contemplated building a launch range, I’d advise against it, because it’s certainly a lot more involved than even we, four years ago, thought it would be,” he said.

“We have learned so much through this test launch and will learn even more in the weeks to come,” Beck said in the statement. “It has been an incredible day and I’m immensely proud of our talented team.”

- See more at: http://spacenews.com/rocket-lab-rea...n-first-electron-launch/#sthash.6WhS5Flk.dpuf