Rocket Lab

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Rocket Lab Ltd.
Private
Founder Peter Beck[1]
Headquarters Headquarters Los Angeles, CA,
Key people
 Peter Beck, CEO
Website Official website

Rocket Lab Ltd. is an American aerospace company headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It has a subsidiary office headquartered in Auckland, New Zealand.[2] It is developing the Electron rocket to provide high-frequency rocket launches to Earth orbit.

History

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Rocket Lab was founded as a New Zealand firm. As of mid-2014, media sources continued to refer to Rocket Lab as a New Zealand company.[3]

Former Crown Research scientist Peter Beck is its founder, CEO and Technical Director. Internet entrepreneur Mark Rocket was the seed investor and co-Director from 2007 to 2011.[4][inconsistent]

In December 2010 Rocket Lab was awarded a US contract from the Operationally Responsive Space Office (ORS) to study a low cost space launcher to place nanosatellites into orbit.[5][6][7][8]

Funding has been obtained from Bessemer Venture Partners, Callaghan Innovation, in 2014, and from Khosla Ventures in 2013.[9][3]

In February 2015, Rocket Lab USA was evaluating Cape Canaveral Air Force Station as a possible launch site.[10]

Rocket Lab announced it selected the Kaitorete Spit, at the southern end of Banks Peninsula, New Zealand, to be the site of its commercial space center in July 2015.[11] After encountering difficulty in obtaining resource consent for the Kaitorete Spit launch site, Rocket labs announced in November 2015 that its primary launch site would instead be on the Mahia Peninsula, east of Wairoa on the North Island.[12]

Sounding rockets

Ātea-1

The first launch of the Ātea-1 (Māori for 'space') suborbital sounding rocket occurred in late 2009.[13] The 6-metre (20 ft) long rocket weighing 60 kg is designed to carry a 2 kg payload to an altitude of 120 km.[14] It was intended to carry scientific payloads or possibly personal items.[15][16][needs update]

Ātea-1 was successfully launched from Great Mercury Island near Coromandel on 30 November 2009 at 2:30 pm after fueling problems delayed the scheduled 7:10 am liftoff.[17]

Ātea-2

A larger Ātea-2 series rocket was reported[by whom?] to be under development.[18][when?]

Electron launch vehicle

In July 2014 it was announced that the company is developing a rocket called Electron, a carbon composite rocket with a payload to orbit of 110 kilograms (240 lb) and a projected cost of less than US$5 million per launch.[19] As of July 2014, the first test launch is planned for 2015.[1]

In April 2015, the company announced the details of the Electron's Rutherford engines. This engine uses pumps that are uniquely powered by battery-powered electric motors rather than a gas generator, expander, or preburner.[20] The engine is also fabricated largely by 3D printing, via electron beam melting,[21] whereby layers of metal powder are melted in a high vacuum by an electron beam rather than a laser.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Rocket Lab News, Webarchive: "December 2010 - Rocket Lab was awarded a US contract from the Operationally Responsive Space Office (ORS) to study low cost international alternatives. Included in this study is a 640,000Ns booster, a miniature avionics system and a launch vehicle to place small mass satellites into polar and low Earth orbits."
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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