Rocket Lab Reveals Plans For Reusable Rocket With 8 Ton Payload (engadget.com) 52
Rocket Lab has unveiled plans for a larger rocket that can carry bigger payloads than its current reusable trooper, the Electron. It's called the Neutron and will be capable of carrying 8 metric tons to low-Earth orbit compared to the Electron's 660 lbs capacity. Engadget reports: The Neutron will also have a fully reusable first stage that can land on an ocean platform, in the same vein as SpaceX's Falcon 9 booster. Rocket Lab is looking to fast-track the rocket's first flight to 2024 by using the existing launch pad at Virginia's Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport located at the NASA Wallops Flight Facility. It's also scouting sites across the US to build a new factory where the Neutron will be assembled at scale.
The new rocket is designed with an eye to the future of mega-satellite constellations. Its larger payload means it can take multiple small satellites in batches to specific orbital planes, creating a "a more targeted approach to building out" the massive projects, said Peter Beck, Rocket Lab founder and CEO. Demand for the constellations is growing, with the satellite networks enabling better navigation and providing communications in rural areas back here on Earth. The Neutron's lift capacity also means it should be able to transport 98 percent of all satellites forecast to launch through 2029.
The new rocket is designed with an eye to the future of mega-satellite constellations. Its larger payload means it can take multiple small satellites in batches to specific orbital planes, creating a "a more targeted approach to building out" the massive projects, said Peter Beck, Rocket Lab founder and CEO. Demand for the constellations is growing, with the satellite networks enabling better navigation and providing communications in rural areas back here on Earth. The Neutron's lift capacity also means it should be able to transport 98 percent of all satellites forecast to launch through 2029.
Re: 2 successful launches so far? (Score:1)
Re:2 successful launches so far? (Score:5, Interesting)
12 successful launches, and no, they're not saying what you claim at all.
Their analogy with Electron has always been that, with respect to small payloads, SpaceX's rideshares are the bus, and they're an Uber. SpaceX is cheaper per kg but more constrained; they're more expensive per kg (though still quite cheap compared to other options), but less constraining to customers (who get a whole mission dedicated to their needs, and their needs alone).
It'll be interesting to see how they position Neutron. It's basically a mini-Falcon 9, and could be quite competitive against Falcon 9, but SpaceX is moving onto Starship, which is much cheaper. But I'm sure they'll again position themselves in a "gathering up the scraps that SpaceX doesn't gobble up" position. Neutron certainly is being designed for mission flexibility, since they're targeting both megaconstellations and human-rating. Could make a nice second-supplier launch provider.
Love Rocket Lab :) (Score:5, Interesting)
Peter Beck had previously stated that they'd never make a larger rocket (and also never do reusability) and if they did he'd eat his hat... so in the video unveiling the rocket [twitter.com], Peter Beck blended ate part of his own hat ;)
There's not many companies out there doing engineering with the same sort of out-of-the-box thinking and rapid iteration philosophy as those Musk runs, but Rocket Lab is definitely in that subset. I remember all of the skepticism (if not outright derision) when the Rutherford engine was unveiled with Electron. I had myself previously considered electric-driven turbopumps, but scrapped the idea due to battery mass concerns - but their solution of staging the battery packs makes that seem so obvious in hindsight. They then pulled off returning carbon fibre boost stages that were never designed for reuse, even though carbon fibre and extreme heat aren't fast friends. And are getting close to snatching them out of the air with a helicopter.
(Plus, I love how Peter isn't on the Mars bandwagon with everyone else, but rather, giving (much neglected) Venus some love)
SpaceX will continue to eat up the lion's share of the launch market, but Rocket Lab is good at picking up the scraps that they don't serve well. Godspeed, Rocket Lab. :)
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As all plans begin.
But Rocket Lab, as a company, most definitely isn't vapourware.
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At least he's a good sport.
What's really interesting is their choice of materials and their choice of 3D printing the engines. That seems to be their major area of innovation.
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At least he's a good sport.
What's really interesting is their choice of materials and their choice of 3D printing the engines. That seems to be their major area of innovation.
They use blockchain as well!
Does anyone know of the costs of reuseablility? I think many think they just take the existing rocket after landing and refuel it, and there ya go - all flights except the first are free.
I've been trying to find that cost, so I think the next step is to land them right on the launchpad.
Re: Love Rocket Lab :) (Score:2)
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> Venus some love
The Soviets were more fond of Venus, too.
There's a real chance of terraforming it. Solar power is much better.
But it's a thousand-year project to put humans up there. Mars is next-decade.
SpaceX's mission is the preservation of consciousness so they're doing the right thing.
The Soviets knew that the Union would last another thousand years at least so they were doing the right thing.
Humans should be chasing all these opportunities.
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Who is talking about the surface?
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GP, for some bizarre reason.
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Venus's middle cloud layer is the most Earthlike place in the solar system outside of Earth. Earthlike gravity - no risk of wasting diseases due to reduced gravity. An amount of atmosphere over your head shielding you from radiation equivalent to being under about 5 meters of water. Earthlike pressures. Earthlike temperatures. Earthlike brightness. The resources that you need in bulk right in the atmosphere around you flowing across your habitat's skin and through its propulsion system (C H O N P S Cl F Ar
Just to be pedantic (Score:5, Insightful)
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Pretty sure all real science and engineering is done using SI units everywhere in the world, actually.
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Yep, it's just the dump-ass media that refuse to quote the original figures ... even, and especially, with US based science and engineering. No sane engineer uses imperial, period.
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Since the US Mars lander crash that mixed up feet with meters when it started its deceleration rockets, probably yes. But I would certainly not bet on it.
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it is 300 kg to LEO
I don't understand your units. What's that in talents, or slugs, or large sacks?
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2 average Yankees, not Americans.
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Apparently, two average Law Enforcement Officers.
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New Zealanders prefer the term tucker bag, I'm told; it's in their national song ... (ducks).
Re:Just to be pedantic (Score:4, Informative)
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The rockets currently launch from NZ but it is a US based company
That's only correct on paper. They registered a US company "Rocket Lab USA" to wholly own their actual NZ rocket business "Rocket Lab", which helps them get US investors and allows them to compete for (and win!) NASA contracts.
They built a launch complex in Mahia, NZ (first private launch facility with successful orbital launches) that they use for most launches (which makes the announcement that Neutron will launch out of Wallops in USA interesting) and their main manufacturing facility is in Auckland a
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Easier to reach orbit from southern US than from Mahia NZ. Mahia is around 39 degrees South, Canaveral is 28.4 or so degrees north. 10+ degrees closer to the equator makes launches easier....
Yes, there's a reason we don't launch from southern Michigan....
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They have a license to launch every 72 hours from 1A, whereas from Wallops we expect they'll have to submit for approval of each launch.
Yes and no. The FAA made a rule change early this year. For qualifying rockets, the only launch approval required is air traffic control, not the old style long form evaluation.
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Regardless is there still anyone in the launch industry in the USA still using the imperial system? If so did they no hear what happened to the Mars Climate Orbiter in 1999?
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> No sane Kiwi engineer is going to use imperial units unless under duress.
No sane journalist is going to write for somebody other than their primary audience.
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And for what it is worth, RocketLab's own press release was in metric, but with imperial values in parenthesis.
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And for what it is worth, RocketLab's own press release was in metric, but with imperial values in parenthesis.
But if you use both, it doesn't give half the Slashdot users the chance to lose their minds. Nothing gets them going like their inability to understand multiple systems.
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As someone pointed out Rocket labs did their press release in metric, but with imperial values in parenthesis. If Slashdot was a USA only targeting website them they should have converted the metric 8T to imperial and used that. As a website aimed at a techni
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Spacex (Score:1)
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Spacex has started a whole new age of space programs and I think there will be many private companies in near future competing for the next-gen space tech.
Do you have an Elon Musk shrine in your bedroom?
Re: Spacex (Score:2)
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Do you have acknowledgement as a synonym for worship in your dictionary?
Okay - tell me the new space explorations that Elon Musk has started. Created solely by Elon Musk, without any input from anyone else.
Your wording was the worrisome part.
Musk has been very successful in getting people excited about getting to space again, and that's a really good thing. And Spacex is in "cowboy mode, trying different things. Also good. I like Spacex. I like Musk. His cult he accidentally created? Not so much.
Because it is a cult. Spacex cult members insert themselves in everything s
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OP said nothing about Elon, you did.
That is a distinction without a difference. The Spacex cult is not differentiated from the Musk cult.
May become human rated (Score:1)
Re: May become human rated (Score:2)
plans ain't the hard part (Score:2)
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(1) They're merging with a SPAC. Market cap in the billions
(2) They have experience with this already, with the Electron.
(3) How about "because people will pay them for launch services"?
Re: plans ain't the hard part (Score:2)