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Private Spaceflight Company Rocket Lab has selected the US launch site for NASA's Wallops Flight Facility, located in Wallops Island, Virginia. The company disclosed the decision on October 17, 2018.
Credit: Rocket Lab
WALLOPS ISLAND, Virginia – The private space flight company Rocket Lab has a new spaceport, located in Virginia.
California-based start-up Rocket Lab, which aims to capture the market for small satellite launchers with its Electron boosters, has unveiled plans to launch missions from Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport overseen by Virginia Space. The first mission could fly as early as next year.
The spaceport, located at NASA's Wallops flight facility, has been used for a long time by the space agency to launch small rockets with suborbital probes. The Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport is also the home port of Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems, which launches commercial cargo missions to the International Space Station for NASA, using Antares rockets and the Cygnus robot. of the society. [Changing the Launch Equation: Q&A with Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck]
Rocket Lab will build a new launch platform, called Launch Complex-2 (LC-2 for short), near the Pad 0A site used by Northrop Grumman for Antares launches. Peter Beck, CEO of Rocket Lab, said the first launch was scheduled for the third quarter of 2019.
"We are honored to be so warmly welcomed in your beautiful state," said Beck at the unveiling that took place here today (October 17).
As its name indicates, LC-2 is the second launch site of Rocket Lab, but it is the first site in the United States. The company has launched two test flights from its main launch site on the Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand.
The Wallops Flight Facility, located on the east coast beach of Virginia, is one of four Rocket Lab shortlisted airports for commercial satellite launches from US soil. Other sites were Cape Canaveral, Florida, Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, and Alaska's Pacific Spatial Ports Complex.
"We were looking for a site that could be developed quickly and adapted to our needs and our [that] Mr. Beck could support a flight rate of at least 12 launches a year, "Beck said. I am very happy to announce that we have found this and more at the NASA Wallops Flight Facility. "
The new launch pad will be located near the Wallops Sea 0A, used by Northrop Grumman's Antares rockets. Rocket Lab would invest $ 20 million for the construction of the new launch site and receive a $ 5 million grant from the Virginia Department of Transportation. The launch complex will include a platform, an integration facility and a launch control center, and the site will create about 30 additional jobs for the local economy, said representatives of Rocket Lab.
"Is it great or what?" Bill Wrobel, director of Flight Installations Wallops, said at a ceremony of inauguration of the works. "It's a real punch in the arm for the east coast."
Beck said the availability of the launch pad was an important factor in favor of Wallops because fewer flights are being launched since the installation than since Cape Canaveral or Vandenberg.
Rocket Lab aims to quickly increase its launch schedule with the addition of LC-2. Mr. Beck stated that he viewed the Wallops launch site as a "reserved" launch pad for customers who could not reach the main launch site of Rocket Lab, LC-1 in Nova Scotia. Zealand. LC-1 is authorized to launch every 72 hours and Rocket Lab aims to increase its launch rate to more than 130 launches per year.
Rocket Lab's engines are produced at its headquarters in Huntington Beach, California, while the rest of the Electron amplifier is assembled in the company's new rocket plant in Auckland, New Zealand.
The electron amplifiers are 17 meters high and are designed to launch payloads of up to 500 pounds. (227 kg) in orbit for about $ 5 million per launch. The company has launched two Electrons to date, a test flight in May 2017 and a second mission in January of this year.
During this second flight, Rocket Lab orbited four small satellites, including three cubesats observing the Earth and a spherical and brilliant spacecraft called Humanity Star. This last craft was built to remain visible to astronomers until it falls back to Earth. (He fell from space earlier this year.)
The next mission of Rocket Lab, nicknamed "It's Business Time", is to be launched in November after a series of delays. Its launch was originally scheduled for April, but the date has been postponed to June and November, due in part to a rocket engine controller problem.
Beck said that "It's Business Time" was on track for a launch in November, adding that the company had spent the last few months solving Electron's long-term problems.
"We are not just focused on the next flight," Beck said. "We are focused on the next 100 flights."
Email Tariq Malik at [email protected] or follow him. @tariqjmalik. follow us @Spacedotcom and Facebook. Original article on Space.com.
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