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Rocket Lab Inaugurates The Era Of Even Cheaper Rocket Launches (bloomberg.com)
pacopico writes: Elon Musk and SpaceX kicked off the New Space era with low-cost, reusable rockets. But now there's something just as dramatic brewing with really, really cheap rockets and really, really cheap satellites. Bloomberg has just profiled Peter Beck, a self-taught rocket engineer from New Zealand, who has built a $5 million rocket that will be taking cubesats [miniaturized satellites] from Planet Labs and others to space in the next few weeks. The story talks about a new type of computing shell being built around the Earth and all the players trying to fill it up.
>self-taught rocket engineer
Just wow. Many people say that Musk would've been better off staying with his underhanded website business. What we can say about that guy? Was he running a plumbing company before getting into rocketry?
We already have a lot of satellites out there in space, so I am not so convinced that a bunch of equivalent-to-amateurs adding to the mix.
The only bright side is that tiny satellites means very little-to-no fallout should they burn up in our atmosphere, but it could be a lot of issues if they hit another satellite (which then potentially hits another satellite, and so on).
I'm excited about SpaceX less because of the cost reduction -- albeit that's awesome too -- but a lot more because of the reusability and the potential to get us to Mars, and beyond.
"self-taught rocket scientist" give me a break. What a load of BS. How on earth did this make it onto slashdot?
Cheaper. Better. If it has a major malfunction, at least I know I won't feel anything as I burn to a crisp then vaporize to the core!
I mean all that treaties about rockets.
So we've finally developed a rocket that we can use to start cleaning up space and the first order of business is to add more space garbage? It figures.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
This is good news. We will be "getting off this rock" stuck in this "gravity well" any day now.
Signed,
Chief Space Nutter
Their first try didn't make orbit. Oh, they are somewhat legit, but I wouldn't celebrate too much until they've proved to have solved the problem and orbited something.
Granted, it took four tries for Mr. Musk to get there and even the Chinese government and all their resources just welped their second Long March 5 launch - space is hard and all that. Still, Rocket Labs still has some ways to go before they are a legit launch provider.
Wide usage of steel tools was followed by a Christianity revolution. The first functional steam engine in 1781 was followed by the Great French Revolution of 1789.
We cannot say what it would be this time. But I am afraid the principle will continue to work.
if you look at the cost per pound instead of cost per launch, this is a very inefficient rocket (worse than ULA) It's payload is tiny.
now, there are cases where $/launch is the driving factor, but not most of the time.
If the $/pound is low enough (and SpaceX is close to 1/10 these folks), you can piggy-back these cubesats on another launch, even using the spacex second stage to put them into a different orbit than the main payload.
If you don't have a time-critical need, you can wait for a much cheaper secondary slot on a reusable rocket.
In exchange for the use of the island, Fay was allowed to place some homemade lamb sausage inside the rocket as cargo. “They were wrapped in tinfoil,” he says. “I thought it would be nice to have sausages that had been to space.”
Fred Dagg was proof that great satire is almost indistinguishable from reality...
And tungsten-carbide blades gave us the Korean War!
He has solved the heat problems by going at night!!!!
I got to the chocolate box before you, that's why the hard ones have teeth marks.
If you RTFA : yes, and actually they managed quite a few feat to make it both legal and easier on them.
e.g.:
- the launch site is privately owned (no competition to use it by other branches government)
- the launch site is quite remote (no need to wait and coordinate with air traffic)
etc.
basically they managed to be legit, and they did in creative manner that actually enable them to operate better.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
LGBTQXYZIJNRPVFSDHUEWOKCMA
There aren't enough letters in the alphabet for the 37 genders I feel. I'm gay with a small j. Biosexual, celesexual, pansexual and ready to fuck your horse.
I'm not quite sure why the article is such a glowing tribute to Rocket Lab and its people. Their last attempt failed to get into orbit and their rocket is quite expensive per lb/kg compared to other launch contractors. It also looks like they have no plans for reusability, which is finally where most launch companies are progressing. Who knows, they may go on to do interesting/great things, but so far they are akin to one of those supercar startups that build in some cutting edge tech into a car that goes slower than most of their competitors, costs significantly more and has a tendency to burst into flames or slide off of the road for little reason.
So you suggest Politics follows the money?
Rocket Lab is doing cool stuff, but the comparison to SpaceX is tenuous.
Rocket Lab's Electron rocket is very similar in size to a V2 (world war II) rocket, with loaded mass 10,500 kg. Wikipedia says it delivers 150-225 kg to a 500 km sun synchronous orbit. The initial Falcon 9 had loaded mass 333,400 kg and delivers 10,450 kg to low earth orbit, and the current Falcon 9 can do about twice that in expendable mode.
Rocket Lab aren't threatening SpaceX's business at all. SpaceX is currently not threatening Rocket Lab, but conceivably could do so in future. If it succeeds in bringing reusable launch costs way down, SpaceX might be in a position to offer 50-100 times the payload for just twice the price.
Quattuor res in hoc mundo sanctae sunt: libri, liberi, libertas et liberalitas.
That's the key phrase, there's so much space junk there already, that maybe, just maybe, we need to think about that instead.
Tiny flecks of stuff, let alone decent sized cubesats, have the power to cause a lot of damage to the ISS, for example.
On y va, qui mal y pense!