Rocket Lab’s two-stage Electron vehicle has not been covered here at Aerospace Perceptions before now, largely because to date the company’s launches have taken place on the opposite side of the globe from a complex in New Zealand. But in the relatively near future, that may change.
Last week Rocket Lab announced
the first three scheduled launches from increasingly-busy Wallops Island,
Virginia. The company’s Launch Complex 2 was built at Wallops’ Mid-Atlantic
Regional Spaceport and has been awaiting its first Electron launch for three
years, a delay largely generated by stringent safety initiatives in NASA software
covering flight termination systems. But as soon as later this year an Electron
will soar on a dedicated mission for Virginia satellite company HawkEye 360.
The payload for this initial
mission launching from Virginia will be six radio-frequency-monitoring
satellites, with nine more to be included in subsequent launches. As noted in a
press release announcing these three missions, “HawkEye
360 provides commercial and government customers with insights that have helped
to detect illegal fishing, poachers in national parks, GPS radio frequency
interference along international borders, and emergency beacons in crisis
situations.”
Standing half as high as a space
shuttle orbiter’s length, the Electron is unique in that it utilizes an
electric pump configuration that feeds its Rutherford liquid propellant
engines, built by Rocket Lab in Long Beach, California. By 2024 Rocket Lab
hopes to implement launches of its under-development Neutron rocket from a
second location on Wallops Island. This new vehicle will stand twice as tall as
Electron.
Rocket Lab is also working toward
enhancing its ability to recover and reuse rocket stages. One thing the company
has already perfected is a certain comedic levity in naming its missions. The
first three Electron launch attempts in New Zealand were christened “It’s a
Test,” “Still Testing,” and “It’s Business Time.” Those were followed by
missions including “Pics or It Didn’t Happen,” “Return to Sender,” and the
upcoming “There and Back Again.”
For more on Rocket Lab visit: https://www.rocketlabusa.com/
For more on HawkEye 360 visit: https://www.he360.com/
