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.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
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.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
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.