Rocket Lab to build new Neutron rocket at Wallops Island in Virginia
Capitalism in space: Rocket Lab announced yesterday that it will build the manufacturing factory for its new Neutron rocket at the Wallops Island in Virginia, close to the company’s launchpad there.
The complex will be home to a rocket production, assembly, and integration facility, as well as a dedicated launch pad for the Neutron rocket located on the southern end of Wallops Island. The estimated 250,000 square foot state-of-the-art complex will be constructed on a 28-acre site adjacent to the Wallops Island Flight Facility and will include a Launch Control Center, Rocket Lab’s fifth global operations center for launch activities and on-orbit operations. To support rapid production of the Neutron rocket, current plans for the complex include automated fiber placement robotic production systems capable of laying up meters of Neutron’s new, specially formulated carbon composite structures in minutes. As a reusable rocket, Neutron is designed to land back on the launch pad after a mission and from there it would be returned to the production complex for refurbishment and re-flight.
The Wallops Island spaceport hopes the state of Virginia will commit $45 million of its own money to this project, but that money still needs to be approved by the state’s legislature.
“Assuming that is done and blessed by the legislature, and we have no reason to believe it will not be, $15 million will go into construction for the facility, and the 30 million will be geared toward the construction of the new launch pad,” Mercer said, noting that the pad would be multi-purpose, not a Neutron exclusive.
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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. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to 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.
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Capitalism in space: Rocket Lab announced yesterday that it will build the manufacturing factory for its new Neutron rocket at the Wallops Island in Virginia, close to the company’s launchpad there.
The complex will be home to a rocket production, assembly, and integration facility, as well as a dedicated launch pad for the Neutron rocket located on the southern end of Wallops Island. The estimated 250,000 square foot state-of-the-art complex will be constructed on a 28-acre site adjacent to the Wallops Island Flight Facility and will include a Launch Control Center, Rocket Lab’s fifth global operations center for launch activities and on-orbit operations. To support rapid production of the Neutron rocket, current plans for the complex include automated fiber placement robotic production systems capable of laying up meters of Neutron’s new, specially formulated carbon composite structures in minutes. As a reusable rocket, Neutron is designed to land back on the launch pad after a mission and from there it would be returned to the production complex for refurbishment and re-flight.
The Wallops Island spaceport hopes the state of Virginia will commit $45 million of its own money to this project, but that money still needs to be approved by the state’s legislature.
“Assuming that is done and blessed by the legislature, and we have no reason to believe it will not be, $15 million will go into construction for the facility, and the 30 million will be geared toward the construction of the new launch pad,” Mercer said, noting that the pad would be multi-purpose, not a Neutron exclusive.
The support of my readers through the years has given 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. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
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. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to 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.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five 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:
5. 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. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
As an area resident I have always been a little skeptical about the Wallops site because of its 38N latitude. Downrange southeasterly azimuth over the Atlantic is pretty good as the coast recedes westward, not so for Northing. Interested in feedback from Robt Z. or readers, as to the long term utility at that latitude. The Russian launch sites are of course rather north, but then so is the azimuth of the ISS, and of course polar or sun-synch orbits.
In a rigorously polar orbit one wouldn’t know from where the thing came. Do know a local NASA telemetry who regularly bounced from Vandenberg (polar aim) to East Coast. In any case I love the local technical prospect, and though a retired geezer enough mechanics to report competently.
On second thought Rocketlab’s NZ site ain’t the equator either.
Thanks, in advance.
John S.
Wallops Island’s first launch was July 4, 1945 of the research rocket “Tiamat”.
Thus followed over 15,000 more, including the development of ICBM reentry warheads, would be tough slog, that one……
John Schneider wrote: “Interested in feedback from Robt Z. or readers, as to the long term utility at that latitude.”
Most people incorrectly believe that the best place for a launchpad is the equator, because it gives an advantage of an initial speed of ~1,000 mph, so that not as much propellant is needed to reach orbital speed — or more payload can be lifted to orbit. This is true for an equatorial orbit, such as geostationary. Since this was the market for the Ariane rocket family, Kourou, French Guiana, is where they built their launchpads.
However, for orbits that cross the equator at an angle, such as 30 degrees, 45 degrees, 60 degrees, or 90 degrees (polar), the optimal locations for those orbits are located at those latitudes. This is because the “throw” received at the equator, while greater than at those latitudes, is offset by the necessity of launching toward the north (or south) in order gain the northerly velocity needed to reach those orbits. At those latitudes, an eastward launch puts the rocket and payload directly into that orbit, taking advantage of the reduced “throw” but not requiring any northward velocity. A launch from Wallops, at 38 degrees, to a 45 degree orbit would be more optimal than launching from the equator or from a pad at 60 degrees.
Sun synchronous orbits are somewhat different, as they are greater than 90 degrees (polar but slightly retrograde). There is no similar “optimal” launch latitude, but one can intuit that launch sites farther from the equator are better than those closer to it (Alaska, New Zealand, Norway, and Scotland give nice polar launch latitudes). The table in the Wikipedia article, below, gives an idea (please note the “inclination” column):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun-synchronous_orbit#Technical_details (Scroll down a little way.)
Geostationary orbits are nice for some communication satellites, but several communication constellations use both high inclination and polar orbits in order to cover as much of the Earth’s surface as possible. Globalstar, Iridium, One Web, and Starlink are four such constellations. GPS and similar global position systems also use high inclination orbits.
Having launch sites at a number of latitudes is desirable.