The start-up plans to launch small satellites from the coast of Virginia
The start-up plans to launch small satellites from the coast of Virginia
A California-based company said on Wednesday it will launch small satellites in orbit from Virginia, an effort that reflects the growing demand from businesses and governments to monitor ships, crops and weather from space.
Rocket Lab said it will build its launch pad at the Mid-Atlantic regional spaceport on the east coast. It is located at NASA's Wallops flight facility, where unmanned cargo missions are already being sent to the International Space Station.
Rocket Lab, which recently built its first launch pad in New Zealand, is settling in Virginia at a time of unprecedented growth in the use of smaller and relatively inexpensive satellites.
As small as a loaf of bread, the devices surround the earth for a few years before burning in the atmosphere. The Atlanta-based consulting firm SpaceWorks predicted in January that it will be necessary to put up to 2,600 of these in orbit over the next five years.
The industry is attracting venture capitalists, while companies in China and companies like Virgin have built launch systems dedicated to smaller devices. Dozens more are in development.
Rocket Lab has sent two rockets so far, calling those missions with humor "It's a test" and "They're still being tested." The second rocket successfully reached orbit in January.
The next commercial mission of Rocket Lab, known as "It's Business Time", is scheduled to take off from New Zealand in November. The launches from Virginia are scheduled to begin as early as the summer of 2019.
"We are not focused on the next flight, we are focused on the next 100 flights," Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck, a New Zealander, told a news conference in Virginia.
Small satellites have often been hooked on rockets carrying larger satellites in orbit or with supplies to the space station. But more and more companies are offering small satellites their own launches, providing more control over their schedules and the orbits to which they are delivered.
Based in Huntington Beach, Calif., Rocket Lab plans to keep costs down by using lightweight, fungible rockets with 3D-printed engines. It's a different plan from other space companies like Elon Muskis Espaciox, which uses larger rockets to transport larger loads.
Rocket Lab said its load in January included a terrestrial imaging satellite for Planet, a company that offers customers information about any flooding or deforestation.
Rocket Lab said future releases will serve the Luxembourg-based firm Kleos Space. That company says it can help law enforcement officials detect illegal activities, such as about people or illegal fishing, by signaling maritime radio transmissions.
NASA also has a contract with Rocket Lab to deliver small satellites. But the company's most famous cargo was perhaps the "Star of Humanity," a geodesic sphere designed to reflect sunlight back to Earth.
Beck said he hoped it would remind people to look beyond everyday concerns and face bigger challenges like climate change. The "Star of Humanity" fell out of orbit a couple of months after the January launch. Its useful life was up to nine months.
Rocket Lab chose the Virginia state spaceport on US finalists. UU They included the Pacific Spaceport Complex of Alaska and Cape Canaveral in Florida. Virginia officials said it could create 100 jobs as flights increase to once a month.
Currently, there are four companies that have developed six vehicles dedicated to the launch of small satellites, and dozens more are in development, according to Carlos Niederstrasser, a Northrop Grumman engineer who tracks the industry. Your company also launches small satellites.
Other companies that enter this market are Virgin Orbit, a sister organization of the space tourism company Virgin Galactic. He has been testing a small rocket that will launch satellites into space from a 747 aircraft that flies to 35,000 feet (10,000 meters). Chinese companies are also in operation.
Niederstrasser wrote in its 2018 industry survey that the market will not be able to support the majority of new companies. But he said it is clear that the founders and investors of the company believe there will be room for at least some.
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