Successful launch of Rocket Labs "Still Testing"

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Sooner Boomer

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New Zealand's Rocket Labs just had a successful flight into orbit of their "Still Testing" Electron launch vehicle, putting three nanosats into orbit.
Coverage: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11979201

Youtube video: [video=youtube;eg5234BOED8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eg5234BOED8[/video]

Things I noticed: The exhaust makes almost no plume; don't know what propellants are. When the second stage lights off, it really scoots!
 
Previous launch attempt, 12/12/17. Aborted at T -0:02. I don't think you could find a more beautiful launch site.

[video=youtube;F_oAGlhFezo]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_oAGlhFezo[/video]
 
I love a round planet. Where else can you show me the video of tomorrow's launch.
 
That is awesome! I didn't know New Zealand had a space program. I love the countdown in an Australian accent!
 
Still learning about these folks and their stuff. The Rutherford engine is 3D printed/laser fused in the U.S. It used electric pumps/batteries to flow the propellants rather than a gas generator and turbopumps. The structure of the Electron rocket is carbon fiber (or is that fibre?).
 
The Rutherford engine is 3D printed/laser fused in the U.S. It used electric pumps/batteries to flow the propellants rather than a gas generator and turbopumps.

I read somewhere that they have three hot swappable battery packs for the pumps and they jettison battery packs during boost.
 
I read somewhere that they have three hot swappable battery packs for the pumps and they jettison battery packs during boost.

That's real neat from a technical/performance standpoint, but geesh, not sure how I feel about batteries plunking into the ocean.

I know I know, industries end up dumping worse stuff every day, but still.
 
That's real neat from a technical/performance standpoint, but geesh, not sure how I feel about batteries plunking into the ocean.

I know I know, industries end up dumping worse stuff every day, but still.
Actually they designed them to burn up in the atmosphere so they don't fill the ocean with them.
 
Ah, it occurs high enough that burnup is achieved. That's a little better. No worse than the normal stage burnup that ends up I the atmosphere.
 
Surprising how little time there was between Max Q and 50% Q. I also haven't heard max shear reported before. Is that a function of the weight remaining in the rocket and its angle off vertical?

Last question, for the south-of-the-equator types. Can you identify the accent of the guy reporting major milestones "readying main engines, ignition, etc.)?
 
Disco nights? Rocket Lab launches glinting sphere into orbit

https://phys.org/news/2018-01-disco-nights-rocket-lab-glinting.html

Look into the night sky at the right time and you might see what amounts to a giant disco ball shimmering and glinting back.

The founder of the company that this week launched the first rocket into orbit from New Zealand said on Wednesday he deployed a secret satellite he believes will be the brightest object in the night sky and which he hopes will remind people of their precarious place in a vast universe.

Peter Beck, the New Zealander who founded California-based Rocket Lab, says he used most of the space aboard his test Electron rocket to house an object he has named the "Humanity Star." The rocket successfully reached orbit on Sunday.

The satellite, not much bigger than a large beach ball, is a geodesic sphere made from carbon-fiber with 65 reflective panels. It is designed to spin rapidly and reflect the sun's light back to Earth. It's expected to orbit the Earth every 90 minutes in an elliptical pattern, travelling at 27 times the speed of sound.

"The goal is make people look up and realize they are on a rock in a giant universe," Beck said.
[plus, to get a whole bunch of (deserved) free advertising since they could put more onboard than just the three cubesats as payload - W]

disconightsr.jpg


Track it (it's in a polar orbit):

https://www.n2yo.com/satellite/?s=43166

The Little Rocket That Could Sends Real Satellites to Space
20 Jan 2018

https://www.wired.com/story/rocket-lab-still-testing/

rockett-TA.jpg


Rocket Lab launch also tested new kick stage
23 Jan 2018

https://spacenews.com/rocket-lab-launch-also-tested-new-kick-stage/

curie-kickstage.jpg
 
[video=youtube;y7jn9VApYqU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7jn9VApYqU[/video]
 
Negative reaction to "space disco ball".

https://www.newsweek.com/rocket-lab...ed-social-media-glittery-space-garbage-792482

From TFA...

The stated goal of the project, at least, seems admirable: “No matter where you are in the world, rich or in poverty, in conflict or at peace, everyone will be able to see the bright, blinking Humanity Star orbiting Earth in the night sky,” Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck said in a statement on the project’s website. “Wait for when the Humanity Star is overhead, and take your loved ones outside to look up and reflect. You may just feel a connection to the more than 7 billion other people on this planet we share this ride with.”

Some reactions were not very positive...

“Wow. Intentionally bright long-term space graffiti. Thanks a lot Rocket Lab,” wrote Mike Brown, an astronomer at the California Institute of Technology, according to his Twitter profile and website. He later called it “bad for astronomy and a horrible precedent.” (Brown has also tweeted about the satellite with #SpaceSpam as an accompanying hashtag.)

Brown is hardly the only person with a critical assessment of the Humanity Star. A physics professor at the University of Auckland called it a “cheesy stunt,” while a writer in Quartz referred to it as “the world’s first global strobe light.” Charlie Mitchell, whose Twitter profile indicates he is a journalist based in New Zealand, tweeted that the Humanity Star was vandalizing the night sky; the director of the Otago Museum in Dunedin, New Zealand, called it “the LAST thing we need.” Andy Howell, an astronomer at the Las Cumbres Observatory in California, called the orb “space garbage.”
 
"Win" in their particular niche market perhaps.

Rocket Lab is about to win the small satellite launch space race
"The sales team has just been going flat out."
12 April 2018

https://arstechnica.com/science/201...dy-to-begin-commercial-launches-life-is-good/

In an interview, Beck said Rocket Lab hopes to fly eight missions in 2018 and reach a monthly launch cadence by the end of the year.

Already this year, Rocket Lab has shipped 30 engines out of its factory in California, and it plans to manufacture 100 during the entire year. These Rutherford engines are small, with a dry weight of only about 35kg, and they produce a modest thrust of 5,400 pounds. But they can be 3D printed relatively quickly, with much of the structure completed within 24 hours, Beck said. Nine of them are combined for the first stage of the Electron rocket.

Asked about his plans over the next decade, Beck said his primary goal is to truly become an efficient and reliable provider of small satellite launches. The Electron offers delivery of up to 150kg to a 500km Sun-synchronous orbit at a price of about $5 million per launch. There is no comparable, dedicated service at this price point, although there are dozens of companies who are in various stages of developing rockets to serve this burgeoning market.
 
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