What Exactly Went Wrong On Rocket Lab’s Recent Launch?
For the past few months, Rocket Lab had put its launch schedule on hold as it determined the exact cause of the most recent mission’s anomaly. Specifically, the last Rocket Lab flight, named We Will Never Desert You, suffered an in-flight anomaly soon after stage separation resulting in the loss of both the vehicle and payload.
Just recently, the company released a full report on exactly what went wrong and how they plan to prevent it in the future. This also marks the return to flight as they prepare for a mission that could launch as early as later this month. This comes in addition to continued progress on Neutron as they test and manufacture different hardware.
It had been quite a while since Rocket Lab suffered an in-flight anomaly. While far from ideal, they have found a solution and are ready to continue launching as they increase mission cadence. Here I will go more in-depth into what the investigation found, upcoming missions, Neutron’s progress, and more.
Investigation Results
Only a few days ago on the 8th, Rocket Lab tweeted saying, “After 7 weeks of intensive analysis, 12,000 data channels reviewed, 200+ sub investigations and countless hours of testing, we’ve identified the probable cause of our September 19th launch anomaly and mapped out the plan for return to flight later this month.”
Back on September 19th, the mission completed lift-off, clearance through Max Q, and stage separation between the rocket’s first and second stages. However, at 151 seconds into the mission, high voltage from the second stage’s power supply system anomalously fell sharply. In less than a second, the stage experienced a total loss of power and was unable to reach orbital velocity to deliver the mission’s payload, subsequently re-entering the atmosphere and ending the mission. Right after this happened, Rocket Lab announced the bad news and noted that they were starting an investigation.
In a statement they said, “After more than seven weeks of extensive analysis of the mission’s manufacturing, test, and flight data, the findings of the investigation overwhelmingly indicate that an unexpected electrical arc occurred within the power supply system that provides high voltage to the Rutherford engine’s motor controllers, shorting the battery packs that provide power to the launch vehicle’s second stage.”
They go on to highlight that “Exhaustive testing and analysis to recreate this failure mode has led to the investigation team’s determination that the arc was likely only made possible by the rare interaction of multiple conditions. Any one of these factors on their own would likely not have caused the failure of the second stage, but when they occur simultaneously in the low-pressure environment of space, they reach the threshold for an arc to form and travel.
They noted that this highly complex set of conditions is extremely difficult to predict and test for on Earth, even in simulated space conditions. This being said, to ensure the fault does not present again, Rocket Lab is implementing two key corrective measures — one designed to improve testing on the ground and another to eliminate the possibility of comparable arcs occurring in flight should similar faults evade the new enhanced testing process. While pre-launch testing of the second stage’s power supply system already covers the full range of its operational parameters including pressure, ionization levels, and voltage, the enhanced test routine will now account for even harsher conditions than those experienced in space, including increasing test-to-flight margins and flight-representative voltage waveforms.
To add to this, as an additional redundancy feature, Rocket Lab has modified Electron’s battery frame section which houses the high voltage power supply system to enable it to maintain optimum gaseous pressure from launch through to stage separation from Electron’s Kick Stage. Pressurizing this section significantly reduces the ability for arcs to form.
Rocket Lab founder and CEO Peter Beck said: “This is a highly complex, improbable, and evasive issue that the team has been relentless in investigating and fixing so we can put an even better vehicle back on the pad. We are grateful to our customers and the FAA for their continued support through this thorough investigation process. Thank you for your trust in our team. We look forward to returning to flight with corrective measures in place to provide the frequent and reliable access to orbit that the industry has come to depend on after 37 successful Electron missions.”
Upcoming Missions
With this in mind, teams at Rocket Lab are already preparing for another launch just weeks away. The next mission, named The Moon God Awakens, has a launch timeline that opens on November 28th, and extends into December. Here, Rocket Lab will launch a dedicated Electron mission for (iQPS), a Japan-based Earth imaging company.
The mission will carry a satellite for the company into orbit on a dedicated Electron mission from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 in Mahia, New Zealand. The payload is a synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) satellite that will join a constellation. The company’s satellites are small, high-performance SAR satellites that use a lightweight, large, stowable antenna to collect high-resolution images of Earth, even through clouds and adverse weather conditions. Ultimately, the iQPS constellation is planned to have 36 satellites capable of monitoring specific fixed points on Earth every 10 minutes. After the last mission results, Rocket Lab is hoping for success and a return to normal launch operations.
In addition, Rocket Lab just got some good news in relation to its variant Electron rocket named HASTE. A few days ago the company announced it had signed a launch services agreement with the US Department of Defense’s Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) for a HASTE mission from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 2 in Virginia. HASTE stands for (Hypersonic Accelerator Suborbital Test Electron) and is somewhat new to Rocket Lab’s business.
This specific mission will deploy a suborbital payload by Australian company Hypersonix called DART AE, a scramjet-powered hypersonic vehicle capable of flying non-ballistic flight patterns at speeds of up to Mach 7. The mission will launch from Rocket Lab’s dedicated launch site at the Virginia Spaceport Authority’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island as early as Q1, 2025. The HyCat mission will demonstrate HASTE’s ‘direct inject’ capability by deploying the Hypersonix payload during ascent, while still within Earth’s atmosphere.
In reality, this is becoming a larger part of Rocket Lab’s business by the day. This latest HASTE mission is the seventh suborbital launch contract awarded to Rocket Lab this year, including Rocket Lab’s first HASTE mission, launched on 17 June 2023 under the Multi-Service Advanced Capability Hypersonic Test Bed (MACH-TB) program. That company has since signed on for four more HASTE missions to launch in 2024 and 2025. Another HASTE launch contract was also announced in August 2023 for a confidential customer.
These operations and missions will be operated by Rocket Lab National Security (RLNS), the Company’s wholly-owned subsidiary created to serve the needs of the U.S. defense and intelligence community and its allies. RLNS, along with Hypersonix, was earlier this year selected by the DIU as a program partner to the DIU’s hypersonic and high-cadence testing (HyCat) project, a program to accelerate potential hypersonic technologies and concepts.
Lastly, we have seen continued progress on Neutron, which is the company’s next-generation medium-lift launch vehicle. A few days ago Rocket Lab tweeted saying, “Neutron is taking shape thanks to a dedicated team of pioneers designing, building, and testing our next-generation rocket. You could be one of them.” This included a few images showcasing taking tests and engine hardware.
Back in early October, Rocket Lab completed cryogenic testing for a Neutron 2nd stage. The test involved filling the tank with liquid nitrogen & pressurizing it to expected flight pressures, then pushing it all the way to failure to test extreme tolerances.” They pointed out that as part of structural testing, they push their tanks to the Maximum Expected Operating Pressure, and beyond. Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck chipped in and said, “Test to failure is the only way to really expose any weak points and validate true margins. At neutron scale, it’s even more fun.”
Part of the reason this test is so important is because of the material this second-stage tank is made out of. Neutron is expected to be the world’s first carbon composite large launch vehicle. Neutron’s structure is comprised of a new, carbon composite material that is designed to be lightweight, strong, and able to withstand the immense heat and forces of launch and re-entry again and again to enable frequent re-flight of the first stage. They are even using a unique automated fiber placement system that can build meters of carbon rocket shell in minutes.
Some of the next steps in this program we can expect include testing flight mechanisms, Archimedes engine build, Archimedes hot fire, first stage build, static fires for both first and second stages, integration, and eventually launch by the end of 2024. Even with this set plan in place and testing being completed, a launch in 2024 would be very impressive. Peter Beck has mentioned that at the end of the day, it’s a rocket program and a lot can happen between now and then. Specifically, a few months ago when asked about a 2024 launch date Peter Beck responded, “The schedule says we can get there. The rubber is going to hit the road in the next six months after we get some of these big tests under our belt. We are certainly going to try to have something on the launch pad in 2024, but you know, it’s a rocket program.”
Conclusion
Rocket Lab has been very busy as they work to get Electron back up and running, improve the HASTE system, and continue to develop Neutron. Only days ago they released a full report on the last Electron mishap and how they will ensure it doesn’t happen again. At this point, the next launch is just a few weeks away. We will have to wait and see how it progresses and the impact it has on the space industry.
