Rocket Lab opens engine facility in former Virgin Orbit headquarters

Rocket Lab has opened a new engine development center in a building that, six months earlier, was the headquarters of a competing launch company, Virgin Orbit. Rocket Lab held a ribbon-cutting ceremony Oct. 4 for its Engine Development Center here. The 13,400-square-meter facility will be used for production of both the Rutherford engines used on its Electron rocket and larger Archimedes engines it is developing for the Neutron rocket. The facility had previously been the headquarters for Virgin Orbit, where that company built its LauncherOne rockets. Virgin Orbit filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in April and Rocket Lab acquired the lease on the building, along with the machinery and equipment inside, for $16.1 million in a bankruptcy auction in May. Rocket Lab previously estimated the value of the facility and its contents at about $100 million. However, Adam Spice, Rocket Lab’s chief financial officer, said in an interview that the biggest impact of the purchase is “de-risking” the schedule for scaling up engine production. “Things that we were thinking we could probably get done in 12 to 18 months, well, it’s done. So really it was more of a timeline and uncertainty shrinker, if you will,” he said. “Getting stuff for 16 cents on the dollar didn’t hurt as well.” Before the bankruptcy sale, Rocket Lab has planned to produce engines in its existing headquarters just a few blocks away. “We could have done that, but that wouldn’t have allowed for the expansion of our space systems business,” he said, which produces satellites. “It’s freed up a tremendous amount of ability to scale up our space systems business. It’s probably a bigger enabler for space systems than it is for the rocket part of our business.”

Rocket Lab will use the former headquarters of Virgin Orbit for producing Rutherford and Archimedes engines. Credit: Rocket Lab/Austin Adams

The proximity of the new engine facility to Rocket Lab’s existing headquarters is another benefit, he added. “We really lucked out.”

Rocket Lab began moving into the building days after the bankruptcy sale closed. Employees started setting up equipment for engine production while organizing the items left behind by Virgin Orbit. Company employees said on a tour that they are still cataloging the inventory of items in the building, which ranged from advanced industrial equipment to large stockpiles of furniture and office equipment.

Spice said the company is already producing parts for the Archimedes engine, and over the previous weekend started moving the production line for the Rutherford engine into the new building. Full-scale engine production will ramp up over the next few months.

The new Rocket Lab facility also benefits the city of Long Beach, which has made a concerted effort in recent years to attract space companies to the city, including Rocket Lab as well as Relativity Space, SpinLaunch and Vast, under an initiative called “Space Beach”. Virgin Orbit had been the first, setting up that facility when it was still a division of Virgin Galactic.

“We were bummed about that,” Rex Richardson, mayor of Long Beach, said of Virgin Orbit’s bankruptcy at the dedication ceremony. “That was our first Space Beach company.”

He thanked Rocket Lab for taking over the facility and working with the city on job fairs for former Virgin Orbit employees. “What that means is that this burgeoning space cluster we have in Long Beach is resilient,” he said.

Rocket Lab, meanwhile, is continuing to investigate the Sept. 19 Electron launch failure. Spice said the investigation is still in its “early days” and didn’t offer a specific timetable for completing it or returning Electron to flight.

“Nothing right now would indicate anything different” for a return to flight compared to the two previous Electron launch failures in July 2020 and May 2021, he said. Those two previous failures both involved the upper stage, which also appeared to be the case with the latest failure, and the company resumed Electron launches within a few months.

“We’re confident we’ll get back relatively soon,” he said.

Rocket Lab reconsidering mid-air recovery of Electron boosters

Rocket Lab is reconsidering the use of mid-air recovery of Electron boosters as part of its efforts to reuse the vehicle. In comments during a Feb. 28 earnings call, Peter Beck, chief executive of Rocket Lab, said the company was weighing recovering stages from the ocean and refurbishing them for launch rather than catching a stage with a helicopter, something that the company attempted twice, unsuccessfully, last year. In the second attempt last November, Rocket Lab called off the helicopter catch because of a momentary loss of telemetry from the booster. The company instead allow the stage to splash down in the ocean, where a boat recovered it and returned it to Rocket Lab’s facilities. “This turned out to be quite a happy turn of events,” he said on the call. “Electron survived an ocean recovery in remarkably good condition, and in a lot of cases its components actually pass requalification for flight.” He said the company is planning an ocean recovery on an upcoming flight after incorporating additional waterproofing into the vehicle “Pending this outcome of testing and analysis of the stage, the mission may move us towards sticking with marine recovery altogether and introduce significant savings to the whole operation.” “In 2022 we proved that it was possible to rendezvous with a returning stage mid-air and get it on the helicopter hook,” Beck said, referring to the first recovery attempt where the stag was snagged by the helicopter but released moments later, “but if we can save ourselves the extra step by just plucking out in water we will.”

The Electron booster, descending under a parachute (right), as seen from the helicopter as it attempted to grapple the parachute. The helicopter released the booster moments later, though. Credit: Rocket Lab

He said later that the cost was “neutral” between mid-air and ocean recovery: the additional work to waterproof the booster and refurbish it was offset by not needing to operate a helicopter. However, Beck estimated that it can perform helicopter recovery on about 50% of Electron launches, but that increases to 60-70% for water recovery.

“What the water landing does enable us to do is recover more vehicles because we don’t have the constraints of the operations of the helicopter,” he said. “So, financially it’s kind of the same, but we get to actually reuse more vehicles.”

Capella contract and upcoming launches

Rocket Lab separately announced Feb. 28 a contract with Capella Space for four Electron launches of that company’s synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging satellites. Each launch will carry a single satellite of Capella’s new Acadia series of satellites. Those launches will begin in the second half of 2023 from Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand, although Rocket Lab said it has the option to move launches to Launch Complex 2 at Wallops Island, Virginia.

“The latest multi-launch deal with Capella Space further to meet our leadership position as the trusted small launch provider of choice for constellation operators,” Beck said in the earnings call. “We’ve now launched and signed deals with some of the most prominent constellations and operators globally, demonstrating the value that Electron provides to these customers by offering reliable and flexible launch to tailored orbits.”

The new contract is in addition to an Electron launch for Capella scheduled for March from Launch Complex 2, carrying two Whitney-series satellites. That launch will take place within days of another Electron launch from Launch Complex 1 with two BlackSky Gen2 imaging satellites. Rocket Lab did not disclose specific dates for the two launches, but there are airspace restrictions in place for a launch from Wallops between March 11 and 17.

Those launches will come after Rocket Lab’s first launch of the year, its inaugural mission from Launch Complex 2 in January. The three launches will account for $19 million in projected revenue in the first quarter, part of overall projections of $51-54 million in revenue for Rocket Lab in the quarter.

Those launches will set the company up for as many as 15 launches in 2023. “With the targeted three launches in the first quarter, I think we’re in great shape to get to that 15 number,” Adam Spice, Rocket Lab’s chief financial officer, said. Demand is higher, but he cautioned that the “school of hard knocks” taught the company of the risks of customer slips.

“We’ve risk adjusted the numbers, so we think 15 is the right number for the year given where we’re at and given the likelihood that some programs could push to the right,” he said.

That demand, Beck added, meant that the company was not seeing pricing pressure on Electron launches. “Electron pricing has never gone down. It’s only ever gone up.”

That will continue, Spice predicted, as other small launch vehicle developers drop out of the market. “I think it’s just a matter of time before kind of the natural selection process really leads us down to a point where launch for Electron becomes more expensive, not less expensive,” he said.

NASA and Rocket Lab ready for first Electron launch from Wallops

After more than two years of delays, NASA and Rocket Lab are finally ready to conduct the first Electron launch from Wallops Island in Virginia on Dec. 16. The launch, called “Virginia is for Launch Lovers” by the company, is scheduled from the company’s Launch Complex (LC) 2 at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at Wallops during a two-hour window that opens at 6 p.m. Eastern Dec. 16. There is an 85% chance of favorable weather for the launch that day as well as on a backup day Dec. 17. The mission will place into orbit three satellites for HawkEye 360, which operates a constellation of spacecraft that perform radio-frequency surveillance. HawkEye 360 signed a contract in April for three Electron launches, including the first Electron launch from Wallops. The scheduled launch comes three years after Rocket Lab declared Launch Complex 2 complete. At that time, it expected to perform the first launch there in the second quarter of 2020 for the Defense Department’s Space Test Program. However, delays in development by NASA of a new autonomous flight termination system (AFTS) required for Electron launches from Wallops delayed that first flight by more than two years. At a Dec. 14 online briefing, David Pierce, director of NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility, said the final safety certification of what’s called the NASA Autonomous Flight Termination Unit (NAFTU) was originally scheduled in time to support a mid-2020 first launch from LC-2. During final checks of the software, engineers discovered numerous errors in the code.

NASA and Rocket Lab say that have the FAA approvals needed for a new autonomous flight termination system needed for the first Electron launch from Wallops, now scheduled for Dec. 16. Credit: Rocket Lab/Trevor Mahlmann

In the fall of 2020, NASA established a “cross-agency” team that included the U.S. Space Force and Federal Aviation Administration to fix the software and go through a certification process, he said. It took more than a year to develop the test procedures and scripts needed to ensure the software met range safety requirements.

By early 2022, NAFTU was ready for independent certification testing. “As part of that, as normally happens in I&T [integration and testing], you find errors or bugs that needed to be fixed, and that’s what we did,” he said. “We knocked down each one of those challenges, one by one, and we completed independent testing in the summer of 2022.”

The system completed an independent certification led by the chief engineer of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in October. “As soon as we completed that, we turned to supporting Peter [Beck] and the fabulous Rocket Lab team” as the company modified NAFTU for use on Electron.

Rocket Lab’s implementation of NAFTU, which the company calls Pegasus, has received approval from the FAA for the upcoming launch. Pierce said NASA still needs to complete “cleaning up some of the paperwork” for full certification of NAFTU from the FAA, which he expects to be complete by the end of the month.

He said there is some additional final paperwork to complete for the Electron launch, in the form of additional analyses by a joint NASA-Rocket Lab team. “What we’ve been doing over the past couple weeks is following up with answers to questions to show how NASA Wallops validated the combined response to our flight safety plan to the FAA,” he said. That work will be complete before a Dec. 15 launch readiness review.

NAFTU will be available to other range users to reduce the number and cost of traditional range safety assets and support higher flight rates. Eighteen companies have requested access to the software, Pierce said, but Rocket Lab will be the first to use it on the upcoming Electron launch.

Rocket Lab has been using its own AFTS for more than 20 Electron launches from its original launch site, LC-1 in New Zealand. “It is a significant reduction in range costs and range equipment,” Beck, chief executive of Rocket Lab, said at the briefing. “AFTS is a huge game-changer.”

A successful launch would finally bring into service LC-2, which Beck said will enable the company to increase its launch rate, of about one per month for most of 2022, in 2023. He offered few specifics about upcoming launches from Wallops at the briefing, but in an earnings call Nov. 9 executives said they anticipated performing 14 Electron launches in 2023, four to six of which would be at LC-2.

Most customers will be able to use either LC-1 or LC-2, he said, and can move between them. “There are some customers that have a U.S. launch requirement,” primarily U.S. government agencies, he said, requiring them to use LC-2.

Beck said the company set up in Virginia, rather than at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station or Kennedy Space Center in Florida, because of the “quietness of the range” or lack of other launches from Wallops. The site currently hosts two Northrop Grumman Antares launches a year along with an occasional Minotaur launch by that company, as well as about a dozen sounding rocket launches a year.

“KSC is an amazing range, but I think everybody has to agree it’s pretty busy,” he said. The company also plans to use Wallops for its Neutron reusable launch vehicle, which will be produced at a factory just outside the Wallops gates. “We can achieve almost the same trajectories out of Virginia and the range is not nearly as busy. There’s a lot of room to grow.”

Rocket Lab launches subsidiary focused on national security market

Rocket Lab, a launch services company and space hardware manufacturer, announced Dec. 1 it is creating a separate entity to focus on U.S. defense and intelligence agency customers. The new business sector, called Rocket Lab National Security, also will work with U.S. allies, the company said. Rocket Lab, which went public in August 2021 via a merger with a special purpose acquisition company, is looking to sign more defense and intelligence customers for its small launch vehicle Electron and its future medium-lift rocket Neutron — expected to debut in 2024. The company decided it needs a separate business dedicated to this market, a spokesperson said in a statement to SpaceNews. “National security missions and payloads on Electron and Neutron, which can have different bureaucratic requirements to commercial launches, will be contracted through the RLNS subsidiary,” the spokesperson said. Having a dedicated national security subsidiary will help understand these customers’ requirements, “which may be dedicated rapid call-up launch, satellite design, build and integration, spacecraft operations, or all of the above.” The establishment of a national security business follows Rocket Lab’s recent introduction of a “responsive space” program aimed at government customers. Rocket Lab USA is based in Long Beach, California. The company operates a launch site in New Zealand and will soon start flying from Wallops, Virginia. Since Electron’s first launch in 2017, Rocket Lab has secured multiple deals with national security agencies, including the National Reconnaissance Office, the U.S. Space Force and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

A Rocket Lab Electron in July 2021 launched an Air Force Research Laboratory demonstration satellite called Monolith. Credit: Rocket Lab

Rocket Lab’s solar power business supplies solar cells for U.S. Space Force missile-warning satellites. Another sector of the company recently won contracts to provide separation systems for the U.S. Space Force’s Space Development Agency satellites.

Rocket Lab also signed a research agreement with the United States Transportation Command to explore the use of rockets for point to point cargo delivery.

“Top of the list for national security is reliability and responsiveness,” said Brian Rogers, senior director of Rocket Lab’s global government launch services.

Rocket Lab launches Japanese radar imaging satellite on 30th Electron mission

Rocket Lab successfully launched a Japanese radar imaging satellite Sept. 15 as the company prepares for another attempt to recover and reuse a booster. An Electron rocket lifted off from Pad B at Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand at 4:38 p.m. Eastern. The rocket’s kick stage deployed its payload, the StriX-1 satellite for Japanese company Synspective, into a sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 563 kilometers about an hour later. The satellite is the third synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging satellite launched for Synspective, all on Electron rockets. StriX-1 is the first “pre-commercial” satellite after two demonstration satellites as the company prepares to build out a constellation of up to 30 SAR satellites by 2026. StriX-1 features improvements to its batteries and communications system to enable it to collect more imagery. The launch was the seventh Electron mission of the year and the 30th overall for the company. StriX-1 was the 150th satellite placed in orbit over those Electron missions. Rocket Lab did not attempt to recover the Electron first stage. The last attempt to do so was on a launch in May, when a helicopter briefly grappled the stage as it descended under a parachute but had to let it go because of unanticipated loads on the helicopter. The booster was instead recovered from the ocean after splashing down. During the webcast of the StriX-1 launch, the company said it would make another midair recovery attempt later this year.

A Rocket Lab Electron lifts off Sept. 15 carrying the StriX-1 radar imaging satellite. Credit: Rocket Lab webcast

Rocket Lab has continued work to prepare reusing boosters. The company announced Sept. 1 it test-fired a Rutherford engine from the booster recovered from the May launch, demonstrating that it worked with only “minimal” refurbishment after its first flight.

“If we can achieve this high level of performance from engine components recovered from the ocean, then I’m optimistic and incredibly excited about what we can do when we bring back dry engines under a helicopter next time,” Peter Beck, chief executive of Rocket Lab, said in a statement.

Others in the small launch vehicle industry remain more skeptical about the benefits of reusability for such rockets. “Reusability, in my mind, always pops up as something extremely fancy and attractive, and also there is obviously the appeal of something more environmentally friendly,” said Giulio Ranzo, chief executive of Avio, manufacturer of the Vega, during a panel at World Satellite Business Week Sept. 13.

He argued that reusability made sense primarily for larger launch vehicles with a high flight rate. “The smaller the launcher and the lower the flight rate, the more it becomes useless,” he said. “I do not see, technically, how on a 200-kilogram-performance launcher, reusability would be very convenient, especially if the flight rate tends to be something like four or five launches a year.”

“Reusability is something that is going to be looked at,” said Jason Mello, president of Firefly Space Transport Services, a subsidiary of Firefly Aerospace. That includes both for the company’s Alpha vehicle, about to make its second flight, as well as the future Medium Launch Vehicle it will develop with Northrop Grumman.

“We have to look at the business case and see what makes sense, and what is that customer demand that we need,” he said.

Dan Hart, chief executive of Virgin Orbit, said the company has looked at reusability for its LauncherOne rocket. “There are puts and takes there,” he said. “There are constraints and logistics complexities associated with reusability. However, if you get the hardware back and make use of it, there’s certainly a benefit to that.”

He said the company has been looking at manufacturing improvements to drive down launch costs rather than rely on reusing components. “The tradeoff is pretty unclear of whether reusability makes a whole lot of sense.”

One part of the overall LauncherOne system is reusable, though: the Boeing 747 aircraft used as the air-launch platform for the rocket. “She’s flown over 8,500 times,” Hart said of the company’s plane. “So, from a reusability standpoint, I think she’s in the lead.”

Globalstar selects MDA and Rocket Lab for new satellites

Globalstar has selected MDA Ltd. and Rocket Lab to supply a set of satellites to replenish its constellation, funded by a mystery customer. Globalstar said Feb. 24 it awarded a contract valued at $327 million to MDA to build 17 satellites intended to extend the life of the company’s existing satellite constellation, which provides messaging and internet-of-things services. The contract includes an option for up to nine additional satellites at $11.4 million each. MDA, in turn, awarded a $143 million contract to Rocket Lab to provide the satellite buses. That contract includes options for additional satellites as well as satellite dispensers and launch integration. “The combination of these vendors offered us the best overall balance of innovation, technical capability, schedule reliability and cost,” David Kagan, chief executive of Globalstar, said in a statement. “We look forward to beginning the process of bending metal and readying the new satellites for launch beginning in approximately three years.” Globalstar will contract for the launch of those satellites separately, with the expectation all will be launched by the end of 2025.

The new satellites will replenish the existing Globalstar fleet, illustrated above, the last of which were launched in 2013. Credit: Globalstar

In its statement, Globalstar referred to a “potential customer” as a key reason to procure the new satellites. “Globalstar is acquiring the satellites to provide continuous satellite services to the potential customer under the Terms Agreement described in the Company’s Annual Reports, as well as services to Globalstar’s current and future customers,” the company said.

That unnamed customer will reimburse 95% of the capital expenditures associated with the new satellites as well as interest costs for Globalstar’s financing of the system. Globalstar said it expects to have financing in place for the satellites by August and has deferred initial payments to MDA at 0% interest until Aug. 16.

In its 2020 annual report, Globalstar said it entered into an agreement, called the Terms Agreement, in February 2020 with an unnamed potential customer. Under that agreement, that customer would pay for nonrecurring engineering services “in connection with the assessment of a potential service utilizing certain of our assets and capacity,” and work on terms for development of operation of that service. The report doesn’t elaborate on the service in question or identify the customer.

Globalstar released its fourth quarter and full year earnings after the markets closed Feb. 24. The company reported revenue of $124.3 million for 2021, down 3% from 2020, and a net loss of $112.6 million, nearly 3% greater than 2020. Globalstar did not disclose new information about the identity of the potential customer mentioned in the Terms Agreement, but said that customer had provided $111.4 million in advance payments “to be recognized into revenue as we perform under the contract.”

Much of the industry speculation regarding Globalstar’s mystery customer has focused on Apple. There were reports last fall that the latest version of Apple’s iPhone would include a satellite connectivity option, with Globalstar providing that service. However, Apple made no mention of a satellite service when it announced the iPhone 13 line in September 2021.

Globalstar is also facing competition in providing satellite connectivity to smartphones. Lynk is working on a smallsat constellation to provide services, starting with messaging, to conventional smartphones, having recently tested that capability in the United States and several other countries. AST SpaceMobile is developing its own satellite constellation to provide services to mobile phones, raising $462 million in a SPAC merger last April to fund work on that system.

MDA said in a statement it will assemble and test the Globalstar satellites in a new facility in Montreal. “Combining our deep expertise with new partners like Rocket Lab to bring exciting capability to the rapidly growing LEO constellation market further strengthens our position in the global satellite systems market,” Mike Greenley, chief executive of MDA, said in a statement.

Rocket Lab, which will manufacture the buses, will leverage its growing vertical integration by using solar panels, structures, reaction wheels and software from companies it has acquired in the last two years.

“With this contract Rocket Lab is executing on its strategy to go beyond launch and lead the new space economy by delivering complete mission solutions spanning spacecraft manufacture, satellite subsystems, flight software, ground operations and launch,” Peter Beck, chief executive of Rocket Lab, said in a company statement.

Rocket Lab launches three research satellites for US Air Force

A Rocket Lab Electron launch vehicle successfully lifted off from Launch Complex 1 on New Zealand's Mahia Peninsula at 06:00 UTC, Sunday 5 May 2019 (18:00 NZST). The STP-27RD mission launched three research and development satellites for the DoD Space Test Program that will demonstrate advanced space technologies, including a satellite to evaluate new ways of tracking space debris. The mission is Rocket Lab's second for 2019 and took the total number of satellites deployed to orbit by the company to 28. The DoD Space Test Program, under Air Force Space Command's Space and Missile Systems Center, procured the STP-27RD mission in partnership with Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) as part of the Rapid Agile Launch Initiative. This initiative leveraged Other Transaction (OT) authority to competitively rapidly award DoD launch service contracts with non-traditional, commercial small launch companies. "It's a testament to our team and mission partners that Electron has placed another three satellites in orbit, just weeks after our flawless mission for DARPA," says Rocket Lab Founder and CEO Peter Beck. "We're proud to have delivered 100% mission success for the launch procured by the Department of Defense's Rapid Agile Launch Initiative, proving once again Rocket Lab's ability to provide responsive and streamlined space access."

Approximately 54 minutes after lift-off, the Electron launch vehicle's Kick Stage successfully deployed the three payloads to their designated orbits. The Space Plug and Play Architecture Research CubeSat-1 (SPARC-1) mission, sponsored by the Air Force Research Laboratory Space Vehicles Directorate (AFRL/RV), is a joint Swedish-United States experiment to explore technology developments in avionics miniaturization, software defined radio systems, and space situational awareness (SSA). T

he Falcon Orbital Debris Experiment (Falcon ODE), sponsored by the United States Air Force Academy, will evaluate ground-based tracking of space objects. Harbinger, a commercial small satellite built by York Space Systems and sponsored by the U.S Army, will demonstrate the ability of an experimental commercial system to meet DoD space capability requirements.

The STP-27RD mission carried Rocket Lab's heaviest payload to date, with the three satellites weighing in at around 180 kg. The highly experienced Rocket Lab team have now delivered 28 satellites into orbit, enabling operations in space debris mitigation, Earth observation, ship and airplane tracking and radio communications.

Rocket Lab's manifest is booked with monthly launches for the remainder of 2019 for a range of commercial and U.S. Government customers. Rocket Lab will scale to a launch every two weeks by the end of the year.

The majority of launches in 2019 are scheduled to lift-off from Launch Complex 1, with the first mission from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 2 at Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia scheduled for late 2019.

Small rockets are taking off

In mid-November, a company called Rocket Lab will try to send six small satellites into orbit around Earth -- a fairly banal undertaking, save for the size of the launch rocket. It is only 17 meters (56 feet) tall and 1.2 meters (four feet) in diameter. And if all goes well, the US company will send up more than one of its Electron rockets every month in 2019. Rocket Lab, which was created in 2006, completed a successful test flight in January and is expected this month to be the first of a new generation of companies to declare itself operational in the so-called "small launch industry." The launch window opens on November 11. Barring a mishap, or another delay after a months-long technical setback, the rocket will blast off from the world's first private orbital launch range in Mahia, New Zealand. Like Rocket Lab, dozens of start-up companies are developing rockets adapted to send small, micro or nanosatellites -- which weigh anything from a few kilos to a few hundred kilos (pounds) -- into space. It's a whole new chapter for the "New Space Race," the latest industry revolution begun about a decade ago and based on private, not public, innovation -- especially in the United States. Rocket Lab's creation has a black carbon composite fuselage with "Electron" emblazoned on the side in white lettering. Its engine is produced by a 3D printer in California, a move that helped cut costs, the company's chief financial officer Adam Spice told AFP.

Launching from New Zealand also has its advantages over traditional sites in Florida or California: there are not nearly as many planes in the air.

"If you've got no air traffic to clear, we have the ability to launch more frequently than any other place in the planet," Spice noted.

The company has six Electron rockets in production, and is estimating it will carry out 16 launches next year.

- 'A lot more flexibility' -

Rocket Lab's plans are not going to be cheap -- relatively, its rocket is expensive on a per-kilo basis.

But it's holding out the prospect of frequent launches that would help resolve the current backlog.

Nowadays, companies that want to put a small satellite into space are only offered spare space in a rocket launched by SpaceX or Arianespace, which are primarily reserved for bigger, costlier satellites.

The two-stage Falcon 9 operated by Elon Musk's SpaceX is 70 meters tall (more than four times bigger than the Electron) and can carry 23 tons of cargo into space (as opposed to a maximum of 250 kilos for the Electron).

But small rockets should help reduce launch wait times from 18-24 months or more, at the bigger companies, to a mere six months.

Customers are ready to pay for the speedy service: the going rate at Rocket Lab is about $40,000 a kilo, as compared with $3,000 a kilo at SpaceX.

"What you have with the small launch vehicles is you get a lot more flexibility," said Rob Coneybeer, an investor in Vector, one of Rocket Lab's competitors.

Other companies in the small rocket sector include Virgin Orbit, Stratolaunch, and Australia-based Gilmour.

Chad Anderson, the CEO of the Space Angels investment network, says there are about 180 companies working on small rockets.

But, he told AFP, there are only about a dozen worldwide that actually have hardware. And even fewer have the necessary funding.

"Maybe there's like half a dozen that are really credible at this moment," the investor said.

- Numerous applications -

The success of those half-dozen firms will help define how fast the New Space Race shakes out.

In 2009, when SpaceX sent its first satellite into orbit, there were about a dozen private space companies, according to Anderson.

Today, there are more than 375 such firms, which have raised more than $16 billion in funding.

The applications for the technology are numerous -- first of all, in telecommunications, and then in Earth observation, according to participants in the second Space Summit organized by The Economist in New York on Thursday.

Obtaining more precise images of Earth, more frequently, would be something companies in multiple sectors would want, from defense to farming, insurance and finance.

Such satellites could help facilitate everything from repairing gas pipelines to assessing flood damage, for example.

SpaceKnow is already using them to count parked cars at Disney World in Florida or the number of swimming pools in Brazil, as well as to observe activity at 6,000 factories in China.

Such data is scooped up by clients on Wall Street, who use it as a new kind of economic indicator.

For all of these services to be accommodated, more satellites need to be in orbit, and thus more rockets need to be launched. Nearly a decade after the creation of SpaceX, the path to space is getting wider.

Rocket Lab selects Wallops Flight Facility for US launch site

US orbital launch provider Rocket Lab has confirmed it will build its first US launch pad for the Electron rocket at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, USA. The site will be Rocket Lab's second dedicated launch complex and builds on Rocket Lab's existing ability to launch up to 120 times annually from the world's only private launch site, Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1, in New Zealand. Launch Complex 2 will be capable of supporting monthly orbital launches and is designed to serve US government and commercial missions. The site brings Rocket Lab's global launch availability across two launch complexes to more than 130 missions per year. The option to select from two launch sites adds an extra layer of flexibility for small satellite customers, offering an unmatched ability to rapidly deploy space-based assets with confidence and precision from a preferred location. "Accessing space should be simple, seamless and tailored to our customers' missions - from idea to orbit. Launching from a second pad builds on Rocket Lab's ability to offer the small satellite industry unmatched schedule and launch location flexibility," said Rocket Lab founder and CEO Peter Beck. "Having proven the Electron vehicle with a successful orbital launch this year, we're thrilled to expand on our ability to provide rapid, reliable and affordable access to orbit for small satellites.

"We've worked closely with the experienced and welcoming teams from Virginia Space and the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at Wallops to design a pad and processes that will enable an agile and streamlined approach to small satellite launch on US soil," he added.

Rocket Lab will work with Virginia Space to construct dedicated pad infrastructure at the site, tailored to the Electron launch vehicle. In addition to the pad, Rocket Lab will develop a Launch Vehicle Integration and Assembly Facility in the Wallops Research Park to support the simultaneous integration of up to four Electron vehicles.

The facility will also contain a control room with connectivity to LC-2, as well as dedicated customer facilities. This new facility, combined with the purpose-built gantry located at LC-2, will provide significant and dedicated vehicle processing capability and flexibility to meet Rocket Lab's high launch cadence.

Through construction and day-to-day operations, Rocket Lab expects to create around 30 jobs immediately to directly support Launch Complex 2, with this number predicted to increase to approximately 100 as launch frequency increases. The development of Launch Complex 2 will also see Rocket Lab continue to expand Electron rocket production at the company's headquarters in Huntington Beach, California, to supply complete launch vehicles for government and commercial customers.

"We are honored to be Rocket Lab's selection for Launch Complex 2," stated Dale Nash, CEO and Executive Director of Virginia Space. "There is an incredible synergy between Virginia Space and Rocket Lab and we are proud to support their missions launching from U.S. soil. We'd like to thank Rocket Lab for their confidence in our team. Virginia Space and MARS employees are standing ready to do everything we can to ensure successful, safe and timely launch missions for Rocket Lab just as we do for every customer of the Spaceport."

Bill Wrobel, director of NASA Wallops, said, "Wallops has more than 70 years of experience successfully supporting missions using suborbital as well as small and medium-class orbital launch vehicles. We look forward, along with our partner Virginia Space and its Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, to supporting Rocket Lab's Electron missions and expanding commercial launch operations from Wallops."

Four spaceports were shortlisted to become Rocket Lab Launch Complex 2, including Cape Canaveral, Wallops Flight Facility, Pacific Spaceport Complex - Alaska and Vandenberg Air Force Base. Wallops Flight Facility made the final cut thanks to high flight frequency available from the site, as well as rapid construction timelines that will see Rocket Lab target the first Electron launch from US soil Q3 2019.

Rocket Lab continues to assess additional launch sites in the US and internationally to provide additional launch flexibility for small satellite customers. The company also maintains agreements with Cape Canaveral in Florida and Pacific Spaceport Complex Alaska to conduct launches from existing pads as required.

Spaceflight to launch smallsats for Canon Electronics and BlackSky

Spaceflight has partnered with Rocket Lab for three upcoming launches. The first Electron mission, scheduled for the end of 2018, will launch a BlackSky microsat along with several rideshare customers. The second mission will launch satellites from commercial and government organizations in early 2019, and the third mission, also scheduled for early 2019, will launch a spacecraft from Canon Electronics. All three missions will lift off from the Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 on the Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand and dispense the customer spacecraft into Lower Earth Orbit. Spaceflight has procured the launch capacity on behalf of its customers and will provide mission campaign integration services. Rocket Lab will assist with satellite to launch vehicle integration and will provide the launch service to orbit using the Electron. Following on the success of Canon Electronics' experimental Earth observing micro satellite CE-SAT-I which was launched in 2017, the company secured launch services with Spaceflight via Rocket Lab's Electron rocket. "This launch is very critical for Canon Electronics as we are launching two satellites built with all components made by Canon Electronics.

CE-SAT-I Mark II is our first mass-production model, and CE-SAT-II is a model equipped with two cameras with different resolutions," said Dr. Nobutada Sako, group executive, Satellite Systems Lab, Canon Electronics Inc.

"Just as Canon provides world premium technologies, sales, and services, we believe Spaceflight and Rocket Lab offer the same premium services to their clients and look forward to a long-term partnership with them."

This deal cements Spaceflight's first missions aboard the Electron rocket and signifies the company's continual expansion of dedicated rideshare missions to small launchers. "Adding the Electron to our portfolio of small launch vehicles fulfills a need for customers to access space with shorter lead times," said Melissa Wuerl, Spaceflight's vice president of business development.

"In addition to providing rideshare services on other organizations' missions, we are pleased to offer first-class integration services and dedicated launches for our customers on the Electron rocket."

"Rapid and repeatable access to space is crucial for the development of vital infrastructure on orbit," added Rocket Lab founder and CEO, Peter Beck. "In partnering with Spaceflight, Rocket Lab delivers streamlined launches and enables innovative missions like those of Canon Electronics and BlackSky."

Rocket Lab successfully sends rocket into orbit

Aerospace company Rocket Lab said Sunday it had successfully fired a rocket into orbit for the first time from its New Zealand launch base. "Electron is orbital. Successful payload deployment," the company tweeted. The Electron rocket, named "Still Testing", took off from Mahia, on the east coast of the North Island, at 2.45pm (0145 GMT) on Sunday and reached orbit eight minutes later. The 17-metre-long (55ft 7in) carbon-fibre rocket is carrying three satellites into space -- one to take images of Earth for United States company Planet Labs, and two to capture weather and ship tracking data for Spire Global. "Speechless. Just like that, @rocketlab reaches orbit and sets a new bar for launch by reaching orbit on just their 2nd test," satellite-powered data company Spire tweeted. Rocket Lab conducted its first launch last May when the firm put a rocket into space, but it did not reach orbit.

Although New Zealand-founded, Rocket Lab lists itself as an American company with headquarters at a wholly-owned New Zealand subsidiary.

Backers include US companies Khosla Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, Lockheed Martin, Promus Ventures and Data Collective.

The company says its mission is to provide "frequent launch opportunities to low Earth orbit" with a range of rocket systems and technologies "for fast and affordable payload deployment".

Rocket Lab launch services with Electron are reported to cost US$4.9 million per flight.