Rocket Lab delivers first test rocket to launch site
The competition heats up: Rocket Lab has delivered its first test rocket to its New Zealand launch complex in preparation for testing.
Over the coming weeks, a series of tests and checkouts will be conducted at the site before the rocket, named “It’s a Test,” is signed-off to fly. “We put it out to our team to name the vehicle,” said Beck. “We wanted to acknowledge the intensive research and development Electron has undergone and that continues with these test flights.”
The launch, which will be the first orbital launch attempt from New Zealand, is the first of three planned tests before Rocket Lab begins providing customers commercial satellite launches.
They hope to launch their first commercial payload on an operational Electron rocket before the end of this year.
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The competition heats up: Rocket Lab has delivered its first test rocket to its New Zealand launch complex in preparation for testing.
Over the coming weeks, a series of tests and checkouts will be conducted at the site before the rocket, named “It’s a Test,” is signed-off to fly. “We put it out to our team to name the vehicle,” said Beck. “We wanted to acknowledge the intensive research and development Electron has undergone and that continues with these test flights.”
The launch, which will be the first orbital launch attempt from New Zealand, is the first of three planned tests before Rocket Lab begins providing customers commercial satellite launches.
They hope to launch their first commercial payload on an operational Electron rocket before the end of this year.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
New Zealand is quite far away from the equator compared to other launch pads. This will be a disadvantage if putting a satellite into equatorial orbit. It won’t matter for polar orbits which is maybe what most small sats use?
I had been under the impression that they had delayed a test flight until after Christmas in order to prevent road closures that would disrupt the local residents during a celebratory time of year. I thought that they already had a rocket in hand. It just goes to show what assumptions we can make from news reports.
Des,
Rocket Labs seems to be emphasizing Sun-synchronous orbits. Sun-synchronous orbits can be desirable, because the orbital plane revolves around the Earth at the same rate that the Earth revolves around the Sun. Thus, a satellite can remain in sunshine without the need for batteries, to cover time spent in Earth’s shadow, and this allows for additional payload than if batteries were needed.
You are correct in that there are not many small satellites in Geostationary orbit (GSO), in which case an equatorial launch would be optimal. Constellations of small satellites tend to be in LEO, and for most of their missions they want at least one visible to various points on the Earth at any given time. For that, they tend to need to be in highly inclined orbits or even in polar orbits. The Iridium constellation and the GPS constellation are good examples of this technique, as they are in high inclination orbits, where an equatorial launch would be suboptimal.
Twenty years ago, I thought that nanotechnology would quickly reduce the size of many satellites. Some satellites, such as most GSO communication satellites, require a lot of power and heat radiation, and they will remain large in size for a long while to come.
There is an annual convention for small satellites, which has been meeting for three decades. A couple of decades ago, many people thought that small satellites were about to become popular, and a few companies developed smaller launchers for the market, but it didn’t happen after all. SpaceX developed the Falcon 1 for the small satellite market, but the market was still not forthcoming a decade ago, either, so SpaceX focused on Falcon 9 and the market for large satellites.
This time, however, there is much more interest in small satellites, and the market looks real. The unfortunate part is that there probably is not enough market for all of the proposed launchers, so we should expect to see several more failures of small launcher companies, such as Firefly. Rocket Labs seems to be just in time to take advantage of the early market, and I wish them luck.