Rocket Labs Successfully Launches Second Electron Small-Satellite Booster

While space companies like SpaceX are looking towards ever larger rockets to push more and more payload into space, others are looking to smaller rockets used for small payloads and less expensive orbital insertions. One of the firms looking at smaller rockets is Rocket Lab with its Electron rocket.

The company has had its second successful launch and this launch pushed the first customer payloads into orbit. The Electron launched from a private facility on the Māhia Peninsula in New Zealand at 2:43 p.m. local time, or about 8:43 p.m. EST on January 19. That launch was delayed 24 hours due to two ships encroaching on the off-shore keep-out zone for the launch facility.

The test flight was postponed from December due to several issues, with the main being weather. Rocket Labs still plans to enter commercial operations in 2018. The Electron rocket can carry about 550 pounds of payload. Larger rockets like those in use by SpaceX can carry many times more than that amount of payload.

Rocket Labs sees its much smaller rockets as a cheaper alternative for customers looking to put smaller payloads into space. One of the satellites that were put into orbit was about the size of a loaf of bread and is called the Dove satellite and is designed for Earth observation. Normally smaller payloads like these would have to wait for a larger payload being launched by SpaceX or its competitors and then piggyback on that launch.

Having smaller rockets that are cheaper and still capable of putting payloads into orbit would significantly decrease the turn around time for companies looking to launch smaller payloads. Virgin Orbit, part of the Virgin group is looking to enter the same small payload market with LauncherOne. That rocket is carried aloft attached to an aircraft, released at 35,000 feet, and then heads into orbit.

SOURCE: Space.com