Rocket Lab to use parts from previous launch on next mission

Wednesday, 12 May 2021

A view of the Electron rocket above the earth.

Rocket Lab has used parts from an Electron rocket that it recovered from the sea in November to build its next rocket that is scheduled to launch from the Māhia Peninsular on Saturday night.

Chief executive Peter Beck said it had reused the pressure system from the first-stage of its November rocket that ensures the rocket keeps its shape and that fuel is available to its pumps.

Although the reused components made up less than 10 per cent of the value of its new rocket, they represent the first fruits of the company’s bid to recycle components.

Rocket Lab will also seek to tightly control the re-entry of the rocket scheduled for launch this weekend and also fish it out of the ocean, so its parts could potentially be used again.

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The next launch will be the first of three “recovery” missions planned for this year and will test a new heat shield on the base of the Electron designed to protect it from 2400-degree Celsius temperatures during re-entry.

The company hopes to eventually use a helicopter to snag its first-stage rockets before they fall back into the sea, allowing it to save more of its rocket parts for reuse.

“The ultimate goal is to be able to put the rocket back on the pad, gas it up and go into orbit again,” Beck said.

The work would also help Rocket Lab gain experience as it continues the development of a new class of far larger Neutron rockets which it plans to launch from its second launch site, in Virginia in the United States US, and power back to the ground through controlled landings, he said.

Beck said Rocket Lab was now capable of building an Electron every 20 days and the limiting factor on the number of launches it could conduct was its “customers’ readiness”.

“We can only fly when they have their spacecraft ready.”

Covid and the logistics of getting spacecraft into the country during the pandemic was a constraining factor, he said.

Saturday’s launch will see Rocket Lab aim to deploy two 60 kilogram rockets for BlackSky, one its regular commercial customers.

Rocket Lab announced in March that it would list on the US Nasdaq stock exchange by the end of June with a US$4.1 billion (NZ$5.7b) valuation.

Beck said plans for the listing remained on track.