Kryten Posted February 16, 2017 Share Posted February 16, 2017 (edited) Quote Rocket Lab delivered its first Electron vehicle to Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 late last night marking the beginning of pre-flight checkouts. The rocket was trucked to the Mahia Peninsula from Rocket Lab’s Auckland facility. “It’s an important milestone for our team and for the space industry. In the past, it’s been countries that go to space, not companies,” said Peter Beck, Rocket Lab's CEO. “Through the innovative use of new technologies our team has created a launch vehicle designed for manufacture at scale. Our ultimate goal is to change our ability to access space.” “Since we commenced this project three years ago, our team has accomplished an incredible amount – the vehicle has gone through rigorous qualification and acceptance testing, Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 has been completed and major tracking infrastructure has been installed in remote locations.” Over the coming weeks, a series of tests and checkouts will be conducted at the site before the rocket, named It’s a Test, is signed-off to fly. “We put it out to our team to name the vehicle,” said Beck. “We wanted to acknowledge the intensive research and development Electron has undergone and that continues with these test flights.” The launch, which will be the first orbital launch attempt from New Zealand, is the first of three planned tests before Rocket Lab begins providing customers commercial satellite launches. Edited March 1, 2021 by Geonovast Changed topic title Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Streetwind Posted February 16, 2017 Share Posted February 16, 2017 Such an inspired name Here's hoping everything checks out smoothly and they can proceed to launch soon! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheEpicSquared Posted February 16, 2017 Share Posted February 16, 2017 Has a launch date been announced yet? Can't find one on the internet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oliverm001x Posted February 16, 2017 Share Posted February 16, 2017 Rocket Lab's latest contraption, article can be found here: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/hawkes-bay-today/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503462&objectid=11801740 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kryten Posted February 16, 2017 Author Share Posted February 16, 2017 2 hours ago, TheEpicSquared said: Has a launch date been announced yet? Can't find one on the internet. There's still a bunch more tests to run before launch, but it should be a matter of weeks rather than months. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ultimate Steve Posted February 18, 2017 Share Posted February 18, 2017 (edited) What? Already!?!?! Wow! I didn't think these guys were anywhere near launching! Edited February 18, 2017 by Ultimate Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kerbiloid Posted February 19, 2017 Share Posted February 19, 2017 Payload 150 kg. Can deliver one Kerbal with individual heatshield to return back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shpaget Posted February 19, 2017 Share Posted February 19, 2017 Looks tinyish. Their site speaks of multiple tests, but I can't find anything about the first launch. Any ideas? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Streetwind Posted February 19, 2017 Share Posted February 19, 2017 They have not determined a launch date yet; it depends on how the checkouts go. The best we have right now is "in a few weeks". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kryten Posted May 11, 2017 Author Share Posted May 11, 2017 A NOTAM has been issued indiciating launch is planned between May 22nd and June 3rd. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheEpicSquared Posted May 11, 2017 Share Posted May 11, 2017 Just now, Kryten said: A NOTAM has been issued indiciating launch is planned between May 22nd and June 3rd. Woohoo! Here's hoping that there's a livestream! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Streetwind Posted May 12, 2017 Share Posted May 12, 2017 (edited) And they have a mission patch to go with it. I like the way it evokes the feel of carbon fiber composite, which the rocket is made out of. Edited May 12, 2017 by Streetwind Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheEpicSquared Posted May 12, 2017 Share Posted May 12, 2017 1 hour ago, Streetwind said: And they have a mission patch to go with it. I like the way it evokes the feel of carbon fiber composite, which the rocket is made out of. That looks positively awesome! Where do you get this info? NasaSpaceFlight? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Streetwind Posted May 12, 2017 Share Posted May 12, 2017 (edited) Just now, TheEpicSquared said: Where do you get this info? NasaSpaceFlight? Just Reddit. Since it's originally from a tweet, though, you could have gotten it via Twitter too. Edited May 12, 2017 by Streetwind Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YNM Posted May 12, 2017 Share Posted May 12, 2017 Well, NZ will soon continues Australia's British effort to space, then I presume ? Oh wait, it's american... Must be really interesting there ! I suppose they'll focus on polar launches then ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ultimate Steve Posted May 12, 2017 Share Posted May 12, 2017 The Hype continues... Best of wishes to Rocket Lab and the X prize team flying on Electron! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedKraken Posted May 13, 2017 Share Posted May 13, 2017 (edited) Yep..lookin forward to seeing the all-black rocket fly.... Anyone think small reusable rockets could be the next growth industry? Smaller nations could have their own presitge launch vehicles on the cheap. I'm hoping someone in aus will do an electron copy. In methalox. In my hometown. Electric pumps on the rutherford engines are very interesting to me. rutherford engine Spoiler Did a paper on closed-loop control of permanent magnet motors back in the day. DSP32C + xilinx + highspeed adc chips made a very expensive but nice testbeds. All done in a $2 asic now. Massive simplification of the engine design plus easy dynamic mixture control on the way up. At the cost of battery mass. Not so good for expendable rockets....but for reusable a different story. ......you are designing the rocket 2x the expendable size regardless....or halving the payload. Would be very interested to see this paired with methalox. Also the performance of the CF tanks. So many interesting things happening right now. Edited May 13, 2017 by RedKraken Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Streetwind Posted May 13, 2017 Share Posted May 13, 2017 16 hours ago, YNM said: Well, NZ will soon continues Australia's British effort to space, then I presume ? Oh wait, it's american... It's both. It's a NZ company that is headquartered in the US for business reasons (ITAR, hiring, opportunity to launch from Florida etc.) 7 hours ago, RedKraken said: Not so good for expendable rockets....but for reusable a different story. Depends. The problem with electric turbopumps is that they are a lot heavier than regular flow turbines, because batteries only hold so much energy per mass, and are limited in the amount of power they can use, because batteries can only output so much power. It only works at all because the Rutherford engine is comparatively small. Because of this, I can pretty much guarantee you that the flight model of the Electron is running its batteries to death in a single cycle. They'll be overcharged to the point of damage prior to launch, and then discharged at unsafe speeds during flight, all the way to the deep discharge point that li-ion batteries should never ever reach. They'll also be skipping out on thermal control systems and other protective equipment. If you want a reusable launch vehicle running on electric turbines, you have to make sure that the batteries survive the launch intact, which means running them inside their design parameters. That costs you extra mass and gives you less energy and less power to work with. As the reusable rocket is already paying a steep mass penalty to enable reusability, that sounds like a bad proposition. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedKraken Posted May 13, 2017 Share Posted May 13, 2017 40 minutes ago, Streetwind said: Because of this, I can pretty much guarantee you that the flight model of the Electron is running its batteries to death in a single cycle. They'll be overcharged to the point of damage prior to launch, and then discharged at unsafe speeds during flight, all the way to the deep discharge point that li-ion batteries should never ever reach. They'll also be skipping out on thermal control systems and other protective equipment. If you want a reusable launch vehicle running on electric turbines, you have to make sure that the batteries survive the launch intact, which means running them inside their design parameters. That costs you extra mass and gives you less energy and less power to work with. As the reusable rocket is already paying a steep mass penalty to enable reusability, that sounds like a bad proposition. Good points. I hope they stream the telemetry. We can work out quite a bit from the launch data. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YNM Posted May 14, 2017 Share Posted May 14, 2017 (edited) 23 hours ago, Streetwind said: If you want a reusable launch vehicle running on electric turbines, you have to make sure that the batteries survive the launch intact, which means running them inside their design parameters. That costs you extra mass and gives you less energy and less power to work with. As the reusable rocket is already paying a steep mass penalty to enable reusability, that sounds like a bad proposition. Well they could use fuel cell... Hmm... Does kerosene-LOX fuel cell even works ? But I presume (and sort of conclude) that given the small payload and rocket size, pursue for cheap price and R&D, location and inclination... no. I believe Electron won't justify a barge or anything - and the south sea are among the most rough sea ever ! Edited May 14, 2017 by YNM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steel Posted May 14, 2017 Share Posted May 14, 2017 24 minutes ago, YNM said: Well they could use fuel cell... Hmm... Does kerosene-LOX fuel cell even works ? I'm not aware of any fuel cell designs using kersoene and/or oxygen. Also Even if there was I don't think you'd get anywhere near the power output required from one anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedKraken Posted May 14, 2017 Share Posted May 14, 2017 Electron test launch : May 22.... https://www.rocketlabusa.com/latest/electron-test-window/ http://spacenews.com/rocket-lab-sets-date-for-first-electron-launch/ https://www.reddit.com/r/RocketLab/comments/6aom62/its_a_test_payload_guess_the_payload_alternative/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedKraken Posted May 15, 2017 Share Posted May 15, 2017 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AHeroReborn Posted May 15, 2017 Share Posted May 15, 2017 Piddly little rocket Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
insert_name Posted May 15, 2017 Share Posted May 15, 2017 if we removed the faring could we fit this into another rocket, and could that rocket get to orbit? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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