Rocket Lab

[Silk]

Rocket Lab put 4 satellites into orbit today - from New Zealand.

 

[das_peikko]

I wonder how they manage to keep from running into another satellite that's already in orbit.

 

[Cujet]

Very cool. I wonder what engines they use?

 

[Barkleymut]

pretty awesome, I have never been that interested in space flight, but the power that rockets/space shuttles generate is quite impressive.

 

[Al]

Originally Posted By: Cujet

Very cool. I wonder what engines they use?

Actually designed by a New Zealander, Lord Rutherford and built in the U.S. for RocketLab. Rocket Lab is a US aerospace manufacturer with a New Zealand subsidiary.[2] Rocket Lab's mission is to develop lightweight, cost-effective commercial rocket launch services.

 

[Linctex]

Wow, excellent audio quality! Good on the Kiwis!!

 

[OneEyeJack]

Originally Posted By: das_peikko

I wonder how they manage to keep from running into another satellite that's already in orbit.

They use data from 2 tracking stations in the US. One is located at Brown Field south of San Diego near the border with Mexico. They have these long antennas that run along the ground so you see nothing as you drive near the facility. The data is really important because if you are going one way and get hit by a piece of space junk going the other way it makes a mess of things. Someday very soon this space junk will have to be dealt with. There's just too much of it. People that travel in space will not survive being hit by even the smallest piece of junk. The bigger the piece the messier it gets. Imagine the energy involved if a 1-pound object hit you with an engaging speed of over 50K miles per hour.

 

[andyd]

The <span style="font-style: italic">name</span> of the rocket is Still Testing. That took a bit of cogitation. Great job Kiwis! SpaceX launches cost under a 100 million$ I wonder what this cost?

 

[Cujet]

Originally Posted By: Al

Originally Posted By: Cujet

Very cool. I wonder what engines they use?

Actually designed by a New Zealander, Lord Rutherford and built in the U.S. for RocketLab. Rocket Lab is a US aerospace manufacturer with a New Zealand subsidiary.[2] Rocket Lab's mission is to develop lightweight, cost-effective commercial rocket launch services.

Ah interesting! I recall reading about this design a few years ago. Fantastic to see it in action! Cool looking little engine, with pretty good fuel specifics. Note: The "turbopump" is actually an electric motor that powers the pumps. A more typical rocket engine uses a gas turbine to drive the pumps. So this rocket needs to carry a large battery to power the motor/pump assembly. However, it burns less fuel, as no fuel is used in the "turbopump". As the specific energy (energy density) of batteries gets better, this becomes more and more plausible. This is the actual engine. Very small, with the electric pumps. Cool design.

 

[ZeeOSix]

The rocket nozzle glowing orange is definately cool. Love the on-board video.

 

[John Done]

Rocket Lab is not the only company that develops lightweight, commercially efficient launch vehicles to deliver small payloads into orbit, such as CubeSat satellites. There are many companies in the world producing launch vehicles so that we will have nothing to deliver in the future. In the UK, Skyrora company also producing different useful devices in order to simplify lives - there is a number of different satellites to observe Earth from different parts of the world, they also made drones to deliver coronavirus tests. Now they are testing Skylark Nano II made for simulating a launch to then be recovered with the use of parachutes.