Rocket Lab launches its first Electron rocket
Capitalism in space: Rocket Lab today successfully completed the first test flight of their Electron rocket.
The rocket did not reach orbit, though it did reach space altitude. More details here.
“It has been an incredible day and I’m immensely proud of our talented team,” said Peter Beck, CEO and founder of Rocket Lab. “We’re one of a few companies to ever develop a rocket from scratch and we did it in under four years. We’ve worked tirelessly to get to this point. We’ve developed everything in house, built the world’s first private orbital launch range, and we’ve done it with a small team.
“It was a great flight. We had a great first stage burn, stage separation, second stage ignition and fairing separation. 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,” says Beck.
It appears they had a problem with the upper stage. Nonetheless, this is a great achievement. They were completely privately funded. They built their own launchpad. When they make orbit they will be the first company to have done such a thing.
I have embedded footage of the launch below the fold.
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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.
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Capitalism in space: Rocket Lab today successfully completed the first test flight of their Electron rocket.
The rocket did not reach orbit, though it did reach space altitude. More details here.
“It has been an incredible day and I’m immensely proud of our talented team,” said Peter Beck, CEO and founder of Rocket Lab. “We’re one of a few companies to ever develop a rocket from scratch and we did it in under four years. We’ve worked tirelessly to get to this point. We’ve developed everything in house, built the world’s first private orbital launch range, and we’ve done it with a small team.
“It was a great flight. We had a great first stage burn, stage separation, second stage ignition and fairing separation. 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,” says Beck.
It appears they had a problem with the upper stage. Nonetheless, this is a great achievement. They were completely privately funded. They built their own launchpad. When they make orbit they will be the first company to have done such a thing.
I have embedded footage of the launch below the fold.
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.
There was also a problem with first stage, which made a roll movement just from the start. I assume that this was not intented. However, second stage did not roll after first stage separation. Here some more informative videos:
View from the rocket downwards during inital flight phase:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vE2AnwJ2Qs
Here a view, later one, downwards the second stage (incl. stage separation), which fallen short of required velocity to reach orbit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Omk24sfUuhY
Nice to see something new. There’s a refreshing quality seeing this fledgling launch, like watching the launch footage of the captured V2’s from the 50’s, taking those first tentative steps into space.
Lox Slosh
@Rod: Do you think that the first stage’s roll movement, which was later compensated by the second stage control system, has caused LOX sloshing? YDo you remember to that special Falcon 1 test flight?
Here is new superb video from Space Lab.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VA_8HPsua0c
Mr. Beck stays same the rocket man, who can cheer as a boy. Here are videos, which shows his beginnings in 2009 and earlier. The man made huge progress and added in 8 years also some weight (:-):
Yes, it is burning!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlMFit6nd6I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4BW1DeakOk
” . . . we did it in under four years.”
NASA take note.
Looks as though Rocket Lab equaled or bettered what it took SpaceX three tries to do with Falcon 1. That ain’t too shabby.
I will eagerly await definitive word on what the defects were in this first test and what fixes are implemented.
@Dick Eagleson: Yep, BTW, the Electron rocket is technologically even more advanced as Falcon 1 was. For example, its whole structure (incl. LOX tank) is made of carbon composite and it employs a new engine scheme, electrically driven propellant pumps.
Dick Eagleson wrote: “Looks as though Rocket Lab equaled or bettered what it took SpaceX three tries to do with Falcon 1.”
There was a time when first launches always blew up. As recently as the 1990s, 10 of the 11 new rockets’ first launches failed in some way. Although this one also failed in some way, at least it didn’t blow up, and it seems that rocket scientists are getting better, learning from the past.
This is what develops people into “steely eyed rocket men.”