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A Rocket Lab Electron rocket takes off from New Zealand on 20 January 2018 for the second space flight of the booster. Electron has put into orbit four small satellites on the mission, called "Still Testing".
Credit: Rocket Lab
The time will soon be up for Rocket Lab, a startup specializing in spaceflight.
The California company plans to launch its first trade mission, dubbed "It's Business Time," next week. If all goes well, a Rocket Lab Electron thruster with six satellites and a technology demonstrator will take off from the startup's New Zealand launch site on the night of November 10th.
The launch window lasts nine days and opens every evening from 23h. EDT at 3:00 am EDT (3:00 am to 7:00 pm GMT, 4:00 pm to 8:00 pm local time in New Zealand), Rocket Lab representatives said. [Changing the Launch Equation: Q&A with Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck]
The company will soon follow up on "It's Business Time", with the ELaNa-XIX mission (teaching launch of nanosatellites # 19) for NASA in December. ELaNa-XIX will deliver 10 small cubes in orbit, developed by various academic groups and NASA research centers.
Back-to-back take-offs are part of Rocket Lab's long-term vision of making spaceflights more routine and accessible via Electron. The 17-meter (57-foot) rocket can lift loads up to 500 lbs. (227 kilograms) for only $ 5 million per flight.
"This year has been dedicated to scaling up our team, facilities and processes to enable reliable high-frequency electron launches," said Peter Beck, Rocket's founder and CEO. Lab, in a statement. "The ability to build and test multiple vehicles, while conducting simultaneous launch campaigns, firmly positions Rocket Lab as the industry leader in providing space access for the little ones." satellites. "
Although this month's launch marks Electron's operational debut, the mission will not be the booster's first trip into space. The rocket carried out demonstration missions in May 2017 and January 2018 and successfully delivered four small satellites in Earth orbit during this last flight.
An overview of the huge new installation of the Rocket Lab in Auckland, New Zealand, which includes a Mission Control Center that will command all future Electron launches.
Credit: Rocket Lab
The two previous missions also left the New Zealand site, located on the Mahia Peninsula, in the North Island. But Rocket Lab will also be launched from the Mid-Atlantic Atlantic Regional Spaceport in Virginia, possibly as early as next year, Beck said last month.
The six satellites launched on "It's Business Time" were built by Spire Global, the Tyvak nano-satellite systems, Fleet Space Technologies, and Irvine CubeSat's STEM program, representatives of Rocket Lab said. The technology demonstrator also being launched is a "sailing drag" designed to combat the growing problem of junk food by helping satellites to desorb faster.
These payloads will initially launch into an elliptical "parking orbit" that will bring them closer to Earth up to 210 km and 500 km. The Rocket Lab's "send-off" will then make the payload orbits circulate 310 km, representatives of the company said.
"It's Business Time" was originally scheduled to be launched last April, but Rocket Lab has delayed take-off several times to deal with a squeaky rocket engine controller and other problems.
Mike Wall's book on the quest for extraterrestrial life, "Out There," will be published on November 13 by Grand Central Publishing. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. follow us @Spacedotcom or Facebook. Originally posted on Space.com.
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