Tag: Rocket Lab

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Rocket Lab celebrates coming close to orbit

Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck cheers the first Electron rocket launch. (Rocket Lab via YouTube)

Rocket Lab didn’t quite make it to orbit on its first try, but the company’s CEO says he’s “very happy” with the Electron rocket’s performance nevertheless.

“We got a lot further than certainly we expected,” founder and CEO Peter Beck told reporters today, hours after the maiden launch from Rocket Lab’s pad on New Zealand’s Mahia Peninsula.

Beck repeatedly stressed that the company still has to analyze the data from the flight. However, he said a preliminary review indicated that the two-stage rocket’s performance was nominal until second-stage fairing separation.

He told GeekWire that the launch team had targeted a 300- to 500-kilometer orbit (200 to 300 miles) for its first test flight, nicknamed “It’s a Test.” Beck estimated that the second stage made it to a height of 250 kilometers (155 miles) before descending again on a suborbital trajectory.

Today Rocket Lab released a video of the countdown and launch that had a decidedly celebratory feel, highlighting the cheers in Mission Control when the rocket rose spaceward.

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Rocket Lab’s first test flight reaches space

Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket rises from its New Zealand launch pad. (Rocket Lab via Twitter)

Rocket Lab says its first Electron rocket “made it to space” after a test launch from a New Zealand pad, marking a big step toward its goal of putting payloads into orbit for $5 million.

Liftoff came at 4:20 p.m. May 25 New Zealand time (9:20 p.m. PT May 24), after earlier opportunities had to be passed up due to weather concerns.

In a statement, Rocket Lab founder and CEO Peter Beck said the rocket achieved an outer-space altitude but fell short of going orbital.

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Spaceflight buys Rocket Lab Electron launch

Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket is prepared for flight. (Rocket Lab Photo)

Seattle-based Spaceflight says it’s struck a deal to buy the full capacity of a single Electron rocket launch from L.A.-based Rocket Lab, so it can send other ventures’ small satellites into orbit at cut-rate prices. The dedicated-rideshare mission follows the model that Spaceflight set with SpaceX for a Falcon 9 launch, now expected to go up next year.

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$75 million turns Rocket Lab into a unicorn

Rocket Lab is developing the low-cost Electron rocket. (Rocket Lab Photo)

Rocket Lab says it has closed a $75 million Series D financing round for production of its low-cost Electron rocket, which is expected to see its maiden launch within the next couple of months. The round was led by Data Collective, with additional new funding from Promus Ventures and an undisclosed investor, plus fresh funding from Khosla Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners and K1W1. Rocket Lab, now headquartered in Huntington Beach, Calif., has received $148 million in funding to date for a valuation in excess of $1 billion. That qualifies the company as a “unicorn,” in tech parlance.

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Moon Express aims for 2017 launch to moon

Moon Express co-founder and CEO Bob Richards shows off a model of the MX-1 lunar lander in 2013. (Credit: Moon Express via YouTube)

Moon Express says it has reserved three lunar lander launches from a startup called Rocket Lab starting in 2017, with an eye toward putting robots on the moon’s surface and winning the lion’s share of the $30 million Google Lunar X Prize.

If the mission is successful, Moon Express could become the first privately backed venture to achieve a soft lunar landing.

“This will be the space equivalent of the four-minute mile,” Moon Express’ co-founder and CEO, Bob Richards, told GeekWire on Thursday. “This is a new era we just could have dreamed about as kids.”

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