
Rocket Lab has successfully launched Electron into orbit - olliepop
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11862250
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disordinary
This shows you that you can achieve even if you're based on an isolated island
on the other side of the world from most established technology and capital
markets.

I always thought launches had to be close to the equator though, hence Europe
launches from Guiana, the US from Florida, Russia from Kazakhstan, etc. so I
wonder why they're doing it from the NZ mainland and not an island further
north.

Their original plan was to do it from Canterbury which is even further south.

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versteegen
Launching from a remote island would be a big disadvantage if the rockets have
to be built elsewhere and shipped there. Their ultimate goal is roughly a
launch per week per launch site.

From [1]:

> The new site, located on the remote Mahia Peninsula, does allow Rocket Lab
> to launch to a wider range of orbits than it could from its original site.
> “We get from sun-synchronous orbit to 38 degrees inclination out of that
> site,” he said. That is important, he said, since the company is hearing
> from potential customers who want to go to a variety of orbits.

> “Traditionally the smallsat guys would want to go to sun-synchronous because
> there’s a lot of rides there if you’re ridesharing,” he said. “But when you
> given them the opportunity to choose their orbital plane, they want to go to
> all sorts of planes, which is very interesting.”

And in an older story [2] about the earlier launch site, being near a city was
cited as a major advantage:

> No people live in the area itself, although Christchurch, a city of nearly
> 350,000 people, is about a 45-minute drive away. “It really is an ideal
> site,” he said.

> Rocket Lab cannot do launches due east from Kaitorete Spit because the
> vehicles would overfly a nearby peninsula, but can launch to orbital
> inclinations ranging from 45 degrees to sun synchronous by flying to the
> south. Beck said the inability to launch due east not an issue for most of
> its customers, who are primarily interested in sun synchronous orbit.

BTW interviews on spacenews.com seem to be one of the best places to find info
on Rocket Lab. For example in a recent piece [3] we have the rather
interesting information that:

> the company has moved into a new headquarters facility in Huntington Beach,
> California. The 150,000-square foot building will be used to manufacture
> engines for the Electron rocket as well as electronics systems. The vehicles
> themselves will continue to be assembled at a factory in New Zealand

[1] [http://spacenews.com/rocket-lab-plans-electron-test-
launches...](http://spacenews.com/rocket-lab-plans-electron-test-launches-
this-year/) [2] [http://spacenews.com/rocket-lab-selects-new-zealand-
launch-s...](http://spacenews.com/rocket-lab-selects-new-zealand-launch-site/)
[3] [http://spacenews.com/rocket-lab-raises-75-million-to-
scale-u...](http://spacenews.com/rocket-lab-raises-75-million-to-scale-up-
launch-vehicle-production/)

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gnat
Not into orbit. [https://www.nbr.co.nz/article/rocket-lab-counts-down-
first-t...](https://www.nbr.co.nz/article/rocket-lab-counts-down-first-test-
launch-ck-202970)

“It was a great flight. We had a great first stage burn, stage separation,
second stage ignition and fairing separation. We didn’t quite reach orbit and
we’ll be investigating why, however reaching space in our first test puts us
in an incredibly strong position to accelerate the commercial phase of our
programme, deliver our customers to orbit and make space open for business,”
says Beck.

