Related: Rocket Lab Aborts Second Attempt at Catching a Rocket With a Helicopter With the new launch pad, Rocket Lab says it can now “support more than 130 launch opportunities every year,” whether for government or commercial satellite operators. The busiest small rocket in the world is about to get busier. Electron also comes with a kick stage for delivering satellites to specific orbits.
Rutherford engines are built almost exclusively from 3D-printed parts, lowering manufacturing costs. The booster is powered by nine Rutherford engines, which combine to produce 43,000 pounds of thrust at liftoff, allowing the rocket to lift 660 pounds to low Earth orbit. The company is steadily inching towards the ability to use a helicopter to recover the booster during its parachute-assisted descent. Standing 59 feet (18 meters) tall, Electron is a partially recoverable two-stage rocket.
The rocket will attempt to deliver a batch of radio frequency monitoring satellites for Virginia-based HawkEye 360, a geospatial analytics firm. The Electron rocket will blast off from Launch Complex 2 within the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility. The mission, named “Virginia is for Launch Lovers,” is scheduled to take off on Tuesday, January 24 between 6:00 and 8:00 p.m. Remembering Enterprise: The Test Shuttle That Never Flew to SpaceĪpple's 12 Most Embarrassing Product Failures Twitter Quietly Removes Its Covid-19 Misinformation Policy The kick stage still needs to deliver the three satellites into their target orbit, which should happen some 55 minutes into the mission. Nominal transfer orbit was achieved shortly after the nine minute mark of the mission. ET, with all nine Rutherford engines sending the rocket into the dark Virginia skies. ET: The Electron rocket lifted off at 6:00 p.m. A new era of rocket launches from NASA’s facility on Wallops Island in Virginia began tonight with the much-anticipated launch of Rocket Lab’s Electron small-lift launch vehicle.
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