Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket lifts two more NASA hurricane monitoring satellites into orbit
Rocket Lab today successfully used its Electron rocket to place the last two of NASA’s four-satellite Tropics hurricane monitoring constellation into orbit.
The first launch occurred about two and a half weeks ago, on May 7, 2023. Both launches were originally contracted to Astra, but when that company discontinued operations of its Rocket-3 rocket, NASA turned to Rocket Lab.
The leaders in the 2023 launch race:
34 SpaceX
19 China
7 Russia
5 Rocket Lab
The U.S. now leads China 39 to 19 in the national rankings, and the entire world combined 39 to 33. SpaceX by itself now trails the entire world, including American companies, 34 to 38.
Note that at this moment SpaceX and Rocket Lab are the only American companies that have launched. The established rocket companies, ULA and Northrop Grumman, have launches planned but none as yet, while two American companies have ceased operations, Astra (supposedly temporarily) and Virgin Orbit (permanently).
American freedom resulted in the competition in rocketry which has lowered costs but taken business from the established companies. Freedom has also caused the death of two companies, because the success that freedom brings also carries risks. Failure can happen, but the sum total of achievement is always greater than when competition is squelched.
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
Rocket Lab today successfully used its Electron rocket to place the last two of NASA’s four-satellite Tropics hurricane monitoring constellation into orbit.
The first launch occurred about two and a half weeks ago, on May 7, 2023. Both launches were originally contracted to Astra, but when that company discontinued operations of its Rocket-3 rocket, NASA turned to Rocket Lab.
The leaders in the 2023 launch race:
34 SpaceX
19 China
7 Russia
5 Rocket Lab
The U.S. now leads China 39 to 19 in the national rankings, and the entire world combined 39 to 33. SpaceX by itself now trails the entire world, including American companies, 34 to 38.
Note that at this moment SpaceX and Rocket Lab are the only American companies that have launched. The established rocket companies, ULA and Northrop Grumman, have launches planned but none as yet, while two American companies have ceased operations, Astra (supposedly temporarily) and Virgin Orbit (permanently).
American freedom resulted in the competition in rocketry which has lowered costs but taken business from the established companies. Freedom has also caused the death of two companies, because the success that freedom brings also carries risks. Failure can happen, but the sum total of achievement is always greater than when competition is squelched.
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
Just as long as their for Monitoring Hurricanes not spying on us
Robert,
You wrote: “Freedom has also caused the death of two companies, because the success that freedom brings also carries risks.”
I beg to differ. Virgin Galactic was not lost due to freedom but due to governmental interference — the opposite of freedom, as it was not free to launch on its intended launch date. Astra may not be lost but may be hibernating — or rather metamorphosing into a larger launch vehicle with a different customer base. We will have to see when/should it emerge from its chrysalis. This transformation is due to freedom.
Astra is lost as a small-lift launch company (< 2,000 kg), as its planned Terran-R is a much larger heavy-lift launch vehicle, with a capacity (33,000 kg) similar to Falcon-9 (38,000 kg, when landing on a drone ship for reuse).
A few weeks ago, I talked to someone who builds small satellites, and he was not happy about losing two smallsat launchers. It reduces the flexibility of choice of launch providers and does not help in the competition for reducing launch costs. He was concerned that some companies that otherwise would have ordered small satellites may decide to not expand their business into the small satellite arena or may decide to not start their businesses at all.
Astra is not out, yet, they are hanging by a thread.
Rocket 3.0 was a disaster for them. If I recall they had a “high cadence, high risk” model. They accepted too much risk in a market where more reliable launchers exist as options.
If they can get to Rocket 4.0, they may make it, but even their own financial disclosures admit that they may not make it.
At this point, it appears Kemp is no Musk.