CatastrophicFailure Posted July 31, 2020 Share Posted July 31, 2020 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted August 4, 2020 Share Posted August 4, 2020 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cubinator Posted August 5, 2020 Share Posted August 5, 2020 Live momentarily. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RCgothic Posted August 6, 2020 Share Posted August 6, 2020 And a fairing upgrade too! This is a *much* larger fairing! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RCgothic Posted August 6, 2020 Share Posted August 6, 2020 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silavite Posted August 13, 2020 Share Posted August 13, 2020 Mike Griffin joins board of Rocket Lab. https://spacenews.com/mike-griffin-joins-board-of-rocket-lab/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Space Nerd Posted August 21, 2020 Share Posted August 21, 2020 https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/rocket-lab-targets-venus-for-2023-life-searching-mission Although I don't think there's life in the clouds of Venus, this still gives me the "yeets"! I'll be over the Mun if there's really life there despite the low odds, and even if there's no life, we'll probably find something interesting there. Let's face it, Venus has been ignored for long enough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted August 22, 2020 Share Posted August 22, 2020 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brown.alex Posted August 25, 2020 Share Posted August 25, 2020 (edited) Rocket Lab's comeback mission will lift off on Wednesday night (Aug. 26), if all goes according to plan. Rocket Lab, the global leader in dedicated small satellite launch, hasn't flown since July 4, when its two-stage Electron rocket suffered an anomaly shortly after launch, ending a string of 11 straight successful missions. By the end of July, Rocket Lab had traced the problem to a single faulty electrical connection in the Electron's upper stage. Company representatives stressed at the time that the booster would be up and running again soon, and that optimism has now been borne out. An Electron is scheduled to lift off from Rocket Lab's New Zealand launch site during a two-week window that opens Wednesday at 11:05 p.m. EDT (0305 GMT on Thursday, Aug. 27), company representatives announced via Twitter on Friday (Aug. 21) Edited August 25, 2020 by brown.alex Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted August 26, 2020 Share Posted August 26, 2020 They've got swag, too: Might have to get one of their t-shirts one of these days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RCgothic Posted August 26, 2020 Share Posted August 26, 2020 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RealKerbal3x Posted August 26, 2020 Share Posted August 26, 2020 53 minutes ago, RCgothic said: Ooh, we might have Starship SN6 hopping and Electron returning to flight on the same day! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted August 26, 2020 Share Posted August 26, 2020 4 hours ago, RealKerbal3x said: Ooh, we might have Starship SN6 hopping and Electron returning to flight on the same day! And Falcon 9 • SAOCOM 1B launching with an RTLS landing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted August 28, 2020 Share Posted August 28, 2020 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted August 31, 2020 Share Posted August 31, 2020 Weather 90% go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted August 31, 2020 Share Posted August 31, 2020 Guess it worked. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RyanRising Posted August 31, 2020 Share Posted August 31, 2020 I know it was near impossible they’d have the same problem twice in a row, but I still let out a sigh of relief when I saw the battery drop away. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted September 2, 2020 Share Posted September 2, 2020 Rocket Lab update on the 3rd: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ultimate Steve Posted September 2, 2020 Share Posted September 2, 2020 "We will never do reusability" "We will never build a bigger rocket" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CatastrophicFailure Posted September 2, 2020 Share Posted September 2, 2020 5 minutes ago, Ultimate Steve said: "We will never do reusability" "We will never build a bigger rocket" “Electron Heavy was just an April Fool’s joke.” Personally I’m betting on Starship Lite... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted September 2, 2020 Share Posted September 2, 2020 Wonder how much solar you'd need to power an electric pumped engine? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ultimate Steve Posted September 2, 2020 Share Posted September 2, 2020 11 minutes ago, CatastrophicFailure said: “Electron Heavy was just an April Fool’s joke.” Personally I’m betting on Starship Lite... Initially I thought it was gonna be something small, like Photon updates, or selling a kick stage to other launch providers, or an update on reusability or something like that, but because they titled the stream "The Next Chapter" I'm inclined to believe that its something bigger. Doesn't necessarily have to be a launch vehicle (electron heavy, starship lite (more likely than EH IMO) or otherwise), could be them building space related hardware for non LV applications (some participation in Artemis?) or something related to their planned Venus mission. Could also be something I'm not thinking of. I'm 99.9% sure this isn't it, but theoretically (300kg payload) you could launch a decently sized human (80kg), spacesuit (100kg?) and MOOSE (90kg) with 30kg left over for structure, supplies, etc. and perform very basic orbital human spaceflight. This would not be safe by any definition of the word (no LES, very minimal capsule) but it would be possible. However, due to the lack of safety and use case, I'm almost certainly sure this isn't it. Of the above options, though, a new launch vehicle sounds at least relatively likely as far as "The Next Chapter" goes. Unless they are still counting reusability as "The Next Chapter," which is possible because they haven't done it yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ultimate Steve Posted September 3, 2020 Share Posted September 3, 2020 Talking about Photon on the stream. So likely not anything super groundbreaking as in some of the above speculation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tater Posted September 3, 2020 Share Posted September 3, 2020 Photon as more than a bus, basically. Presumably a customer can design all the "not spacecraft" bits, and Photon does that stuff (power, comms, attitude control, propulsion) for them. Not super exciting, but useful for Rocket Lab, as F9 rideshare crushes them on cost, and bespoke orbits are useful, but less required when rideshare is so cheap it's cheaper to add props to your sat and do that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cubinator Posted September 14, 2020 Share Posted September 14, 2020 Phosphine has been detected in Venus. I bet Peter Beck is jumping. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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