Vector Space Systems plans launches from Kennedy
The competition heats up: Vector Space Systems will this weekend erect a test version of its two-stage Vector-R rocket and launch platform for display at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Center.
CEO Jim Cantrell also “will announce the intention of the company to use the launch facilities in the future,” according to Space Florida. The two-stage Vector-R — the “R” is short for Rapid — stands 42 feet tall and measures 42 inches around, and is designed to deliver micro-satellites weighing up to about 135 pounds to orbit. The rocket is expected to debut in 2018, flying up to six times. The company eventually envisions launching 100 or more times a year.
Much of this sounds like a bit of PR aimed at the public, not an actual flight plan. However, if they are prepping for an eventual launch at Kennedy there is also no reason they shouldn’t hype that fact beforehand.
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The competition heats up: Vector Space Systems will this weekend erect a test version of its two-stage Vector-R rocket and launch platform for display at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Center.
CEO Jim Cantrell also “will announce the intention of the company to use the launch facilities in the future,” according to Space Florida. The two-stage Vector-R — the “R” is short for Rapid — stands 42 feet tall and measures 42 inches around, and is designed to deliver micro-satellites weighing up to about 135 pounds to orbit. The rocket is expected to debut in 2018, flying up to six times. The company eventually envisions launching 100 or more times a year.
Much of this sounds like a bit of PR aimed at the public, not an actual flight plan. However, if they are prepping for an eventual launch at Kennedy there is also no reason they shouldn’t hype that fact beforehand.
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.
“Whats our vector Victor?” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVq4_HhBK8Y
Vector-R, R as in Wrong. Maybe their marketing department is inspired by Russian naming, like Spektr-R, the woRst named space telescope yet.
Frank+
The Vector Space vehicles are small enough that launch facilities for them would not be a problem at any existing U.S. spaceport.
Vector already has a deal with the Kodiak site in Alaska. Given that smallsats skew toward wanting polar or sun-sync orbits, this an excellent fit for them. Given the recent demise of LockMart’s Athena vehicle, Vector’s birds are now the only ones likely to be launching from Kodiak for awhile.
Frankly, absent New Space smallsats and launchers, Kodiak would be toast by now. If Vector can achieve its hoped-for 100/yr. launch cadence, more than half of these missions are likely to go from Kodiak. A launch every few days, even of Vector-size vehicles, would absolutely make Kodiak as a full member of the Big Boys Space Club.
But Vector aims to be an all-azimuth provider so it needs an equatorial-friendly launch site too. Given the small size of its vehicles, Wallops would, at first blush, seem a good fit. But Vector wants to attain a high launch cadence. Wallops has a small perimeter and much closer neighbors than other U.S. launch sites. Scuttlebutt is that said neighbors are more NIMBY-ish too. Frequent launches, even of small vehicles, could engender troublesome pushback from locals.
Going to Canaveral would offer Vector several advantages:
(1) No close neighbors. Given that even the distant neighbors are long-used to EELV-scale launches every other week or so, and are getting used to SpaceX’s double sonic booms as their 1st stages come home to mama, Vector Space launches are going to fall more into the, “Are you sure that was a rocket launch?” category.
(2) More, roomier and better-appointed currently disused pad facilities to choose among. Even the old IRBM and sounding rocket-size facilities are plenty big enough to handle Vector’s vehicles. Lots of sprucing up and updating needed, to be sure, but little or no heavy construction work.
(3) The available assistance of the very booster-ish – in both senses of the word – Space Florida organization to help grease wheels, cadge a bit of government money and generally pave the way. I don’t know if there are awards for business promotion organizations, but if there are, Space Florida deserves to be the Meryl Streep of local development assistance.
(4) Better orbital mechanics as, being closer to the equator than Wallops, Canaveral boosts the lift capacity of Vector’s vehicles by a modest, but useful, amount.
(5) Higher public profile. That completely explains the choice of Canaveral for Vector’s new display. The company wants to raise its profile with both do-it-for-a-living space people and with the space-enthused general public. Canaveral is the 800-pound gorilla of space-related tourist attractions. Vector is putting up its display there for the same reason film studios put up posters for coming attractions in theater lobbies; the fans are already coming to see something else, so introduce yourself and tell them you’ll be showing up for real not too far down the road.