How Rocket Lab Is Working To Become One of The Biggest Launch Providers In The Industry
2022 was by far one of the biggest and most important years for Rocket Lab. Between an increase in launch cadence, the addition of a second launch pad at LC-1, the completion of LC-2, Neutron development, and much more. Not to mention the fact that all 9 launches were a success and not a single payload was lost.
9 launches was a new record for the company and is expected to increase significantly in 2023. Additional infrastructure in the United States means more opportunities every month for Rocket Lab to take advantage of. It’s important to point out that some of last year’s missions were very ambitious including two attempts to catch Electron’s booster out of mid air, and even a launch to the Moon.
In the grand scheme of things, Rocket Lab wants to become a one stop shop for practically everything within the space industry. This is why over the last couple of years the company has been acquiring smaller companies that offer different important services. Here I will go more in-depth into Rocket Lab’s 2022 accomplishments, the significant impact the company is having, plans for 2023, and more.
Best Year Ever
In terms of launches, 2022 was the most impressive year for Rocket Lab. With a total of 9 launches, the company ranked as the second most frequently launched U.S. rocket. Some other ahcmeviemnts include the first helicopter capture of Electron, advancing reusability program, the first reflight of recovered, pre-flown Electron components, and the fastest launch turnaround yet at only 15 days between launches.
Launch cadence is a term that Rocket Lab uses quite often and is very important to the company. One of the most important additions in 2022 to this process was the completion of a second pad at Launch Complex 1. In February, Rocket Lab announced the completion of its second orbital launch pad at Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand – the Company’s third dedicated pad for its Electron rocket. Pad B is based within Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1, the world’s first private orbital launch site, located in Mahia, New Zealand. The new pad joins the existing Pad A at Launch Complex 1 and a third launch pad at Rocket Lab Launch Complex 2 in Virginia, USA. With two operational pads within the same launch complex, Rocket Lab doubled the launch capacity of its Electron launch vehicle.
Only a few months later in May, the first ever catch was made during the There And Back Again Mission. The “There And Back Again” mission deployed 34 satellites to a sun synchronous orbit for a variety of customers, and at the time, brought the total number of satellites launched by Electron to 146. The launch was also a recovery mission where, for the first time, Rocket Lab caught Electron’s first stage as it returned from space under parachutes using a helicopter. While soon after the catch the booster had to be dropped due to irregular load feedback, it marked a major step in the process of reusability for the company.
The next mission in 2022 was one of the most impressive. On June 28, 2022 Rocket Lab launched the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE) spacecraft for NASA and Advanced Space. On July 04, 2022, Rocket Lab’s Lunar Photon spacecraft completed a trans lunar injection and successfully deployed CAPSTONE on its mission to the Moon. This was a great example of Rocket Lab having developed much more than just a launch vehicle with the addition of a unique and missions specific Photon third stage.
Fourturanly, the Electron rocket was not the only launch vehicle making progress in 2022. In April, Rocket Lab broke ground on the construction of a state-of-the-art rocket production complex where the Company’s Neutron launch vehicle will be manufactured. The 250,000 square foot Neutron Production Complex is being constructed on a 28-acre site adjacent to the NASA Wallops Flight Facility and Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Virginia’s Eastern Shore. The complex will support Neutron production, assembly, and integration, and is expected to bring up to 250 highly-skilled roles to the region. Construction will also soon begin on a launch pad for Neutron at the southern end of Wallops Island, near Rocket Lab’s existing launch pad for the Electron rocket.
On November 4th, they also kicked off operations for testing the Archimedes engine with a ribbon cutting ceremony at NASA’s historic Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. The Archimedes Test Complex will be home to engine testing for the 165,000 lbf engines to be used on Rocket Lab’s reusable Neutron rocket. The Archimedes Test Complex is located across a 1 million square foot area at the Stennis Space Center’s A Test Complex and includes use and development of existing infrastructure of the A-3 Test Stand to develop and test Neutron’s Archimedes engines. With the opening of the Archimedes Test Complex, Rocket Lab will be able to create dozens of new jobs and make significant capital investments in the state of Mississippi. Just some of the most significant achievements in 2022.
Big Things In 2023
Now that we know more about some of the achievements Rocket Lab made in 2022, we can take a closer look at some of the big developments expected to happen in the new year. To start off, later this month we can expect the first ever launch from the United States at Launch Complex 2. Located at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island, Virginia, Rocket Lab Launch Complex 2 represents a new national launch capability for the United States. Construction on the site began in February 2019, with the site completed just 10 months later. While some errors with the NAFTU system delayed the first launch quite a bit, this month that is set to change. Designed to support rapid call-up missions, Launch Complex 2 will help deliver responsive launch capability from home soil for U.S. government small satellites. The ability to deploy satellites to precise orbits in a matter of hours, not months or years, is increasingly important to ensure resilience in space. As of right now, Rocket Lab has two Electron rockets sitting at the pad getting ready for back to back launches.
In terms of launches, this year Rocket Lab is sending the first private mission to Venus to help gather further evidence. The goal, using an Electron launch vehicle and Photon spacecraft, is to send a probe to around 30 miles’ altitude, where Venus’ atmospheric conditions are closer to those found on Earth. The company first managed to reach the Moon and now is going for Venus. Another exiting mission to look out for is the launch of the Active Debris Removal by Astroscale-Japan (ADRAS-J) satellite for Astroscale Japan Inc., which has been selected by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) for Phase I of its Commercial Removal of Debris Demonstration Project (CRD2), one of the world’s first technology demonstrations of removing large-scale debris from orbit. Once deployed to a precise orbit by Electron’s Kick Stage, the satellite is designed to rendezvous with a piece of orbital debris, a long abandoned upper stage rocket body.
2023 is also set to be one of the most significant for Neutron. In order to support rapid production of the Neutron rocket, current plans for the complex under construction include automated fiber placement robotic production systems capable of laying up meters of Neutron’s new, specially formulated carbon composite structures in minutes. As a reusable rocket, Neutron is designed to land back on the launch pad after a mission and from there it would be returned to the production complex for refurbishment and re-flight. The manufacturing complex will be located within proximity of Rocket Lab Launch Complex 2, the Company’s launch site for the Electron launch vehicle, the second most frequently launched U.S. rocket annually since 2019. Rocket Lab’s Neutron Production Complex is expected to create as many as 250 jobs in Virginia.
Rocket Lab founder and CEO, Peter Beck, said: “Neutron is a new generation of rocket that will advance the way space is accessed, and Virginia makes perfect sense as a significant site for Neutron’s early development. Its position on the eastern seaboard is the ideal location to support both Neutron’s expected frequent launch cadence and the rocket’s return-to-Earth capability of landing back at its launch site after lift-off; and as one of only four states in the United States with an FAA spaceport license for missions to Earth orbit or on interplanetary trajectories, Virginia is home to an active and experienced aerospace workforce we can pull from to support Neutron’s development and launch. I’m thankful for the Commonwealth’s enthusiasm and backing of Neutron which, combined with the state’s rich heritage as an aerospace state, made it difficult to see anywhere else but Virginia to begin Neutron’s journey.” In the coming 12 months we can expect a lot of progress in Virginia as both Neutron development and its infrastructure makes impressive progress.
Conclusion
Rocket Lab has been a very exciting company to watch for the last couple of years. In 2022 alone they accomplished so much with not only the Electron rocket but also Neutron. 2023 brings even more opportunities and time for different achievements and first ever developments. We will have to wait and see how it progresses and the impact it has on the space industry.