Rocket Lab takes a giant step toward first launch in the US USA

Rocket Lab has taken another important step toward its first launch from American soil, launching the Electron rocket to its new platform at NASA’s Wallops flight facility in Virginia.

The launch will be for the newly created US Space Force. USA From President Donald Trump, who has established himself as a branch of the US Air Force. USA

READ MORE:
• Rocket Lab buys the interplanetary satellite company Sinclair
• An amazing video shows the Rocket Lab helicopter capturing a test rocket as it falls into the sea
• Look: Another military launch from Rocket Lab, this time for the ghost agency
• Rocket Lab gears for lunar orbit missions

The STP-27RM (Space Test Program 27 Rocket Lab Monolith) mission will launch a single Monolith microsatellite from the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Monolith program, which is designed to determine the ability of small satellites to withstand large-aperture payloads to control space weather.

The mission is being coordinated by the US Space Force Missile and Space Systems Center. USA And it’s slated to launch no earlier than the third quarter of 2020.

Virginia is locked up, but Rocket Lab staff can still carry out essential work because “Rocket Lab’s critical work provides responsive access to space for the nation’s civil, defense and national security payloads.”

However, a battery of additional tests is required before the first US release. USA, bringing its launch window to July at the earliest.

Beck tells the Herald that his company’s mission control center in Auckland is now fully operational with the NZ move to level 3.

However, its “Don’t Stop Me Now” mission from Launch Complex 1 on the Mahia Peninsula, originally scheduled for March 24, is still on hold, with no estimated launch date.

“We are now ready for launch, but currently border restrictions are preventing specialists from entering the country, which is having a negative impact. Our team is awaiting launch as soon as those restrictions are alleviated,” says Beck.

Once launched, “Don’t Stop Me Now” will bring small satellites into low Earth orbit for clients such as NASA, the University of New South Wales and the United States National Survey Office (NRO), an agency CIA intelligence sister.

NZ will remain in the frame

The new Launch Complex 2 in Virginia will also host the launch of the Rocket Lab tent early next year in support of NASA’s planned return to the moon by 2024.

“The next Capstone mission that our Electron launch vehicle and the Photon spacecraft will see will deliver a NASA satellite to lunar orbit next year,” says Beck.

With a roster of investors including American defense giant Lockheed Martin and various Silicon Valley heavyweights (as well as the NZ Super Fund, ACC, and Sir Stephen Tindall), Rocket Lab rejoined some time ago in the States. United. Huntington Beach in Los Angeles is home to its corporate office and its largest facility, which produces its Rutherford engines (although it also has a substantial assembly facility in Auckland).

Is New Zealand in danger of breaking out of the Rocket Lab framework?

No. Most of your staff is here. And Beck says that while some clients of the US government USA They require a launch from US territory, there are strong practical reasons why Mahia will continue to be central to his company’s operations.

“Launch Complex 1 will always remain Rocket Lab’s high-volume launch pad thanks to the launch frequency we can achieve from the site. We are licensed for up to 120 Launch Complex 1 missions per year, something made possible by the minimum air and sea traffic at the launch site, “Beck told the Herald this morning.

“In the United States, launching a rocket generally involves delaying or diverting scores, if not hundreds, of commercial flights, as well as shipping traffic.”

The Rocket Lab boss added: “Ultimately, having two launch sites is about giving small satellite customers the choice: they can choose their launch location and the time that best suits their mission. It’s a level flexibility that was previously reserved for large billions of dollars satellites riding in much larger launch vehicles. “

He notes that the Mahia site is expanding to support more frequent launches from New Zealand.

Covid 19: Focus on the ‘higher order’ bits

Beck also remains a large part of local political discourse.

Appearing last night in Paul Henry’s Paradise Reconstruction, he said that since the government was getting deeply into debt in its efforts to rebuild the economy after the pandemic, it should focus on “the higher order bits” where it could get a return from your money.

Beck gave the example of the tourism sector, where throwing money into the hotel sector could now be unsuccessful without demand.

“In tourism, the highest order bit is the border,” said the founder of Rocket Lab. “Make New Zealand’s borders the safest and safest to allow the flow of tourism, so everything that is downstream it flows naturally. “

And we’re already seeing some movement on that front, with one of Beck Rocket Lab’s former colleagues, Ralph Shale, now pushing the thermal cameras offered by his startup Fever Screen as a response to beef up New Zealand border security and make it more efficient.

Beck added: “In my industry, today I was on the phone with the US government. How the space industry will fare through all of this and my advice was ‘Don’t buy a launch.’ There is no point in stimulating A market sector that is relatively lower in the chain.

“The best thing you can do, of course, is stimulate programs, create programs that in turn build spaceships, which in turn require launch, which in turn requires us to support our supply chain.”

Our government’s approach should be guided by the maxim “never waste a crisis,” said Beck.

“The house was burned to the ground. We can either rebuild the house with the same wobbly pipes or leaky roof or really take advantage of this crisis to rebuild the country with something very, very superior. It is a desperate time but a great opportunity to be bold. We are building a nation now. “