Rocket Lab has successfully achieved a milestone that few commercial rockets have achieved, and at a pace that outpaces its competition. The company launched its 50th Electron rocket to date just seven years after the vehicle debuted in May 2017.
Instant liftoff from Launch Complex 1 on New Zealand’s Mahia Peninsula occurred at 6:13 a.m. NZST on Friday, June 21 (2:13 p.m. EDT, 1813 UTC Thursday, June 20).
On board the rocket were five satellites on behalf of the French internet company Kinéis. This was the first of five dedicated flights the company deployed in a full constellation consisting of 25 satellites. All five on this flight were successfully deployed.
The satellites will orbit at a 98-degree angle, with the five satellites deployed “in the exact order individually and in pairs to form the constellation exactly as Kinéis needs,” according to Rocket Lab.
Golden start
The launch for Rocket Lab comes at a busy time for the business, which is pushing to become an end-to-end space company. This includes several upcoming missions for US agencies such as the National Reconnaissance Office and the US Space Force, as well as preparing for a planetary mission to Mars with Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket as its way into space.
Ahead of Electron’s 50th launch, Sir Peter Beck, founder and CEO of Rocket Lab, said he and his team were extremely proud to have reached this milestone in the time they did.
“Of all the commercially developed rockets in the world, the Electron reached 50, we did it in the fastest time. So we scaled to 50 faster than anybody else, faster than Falcon 9, faster than Pegasus, faster than anything else commercially,” Beck said. “And that’s really hard because whether it’s a giant rocket or a small rocket, the scaling element is the same and it’s super, super hard.”
Beck said most of the Electron rockets flying today are quite similar to the rockets that started their business on orbital launch. He said that in addition to their successes, they also took a lot of their failures with them.
“I prefer not to think about it because these are such devastating moments. They are incredibly painful. And yes, it’s true that you build a better vehicle after those moments,” Beck said. “But I always remind the team to never, ever be happy, because if you’re happy, the rocket gods will come down with a baseball bat and let you know who’s in charge.”
“So we always try to improve the vehicle. We take every opportunity we can to improve or make it more reliable. And that’s just the harsh reality of spaceflight: it’s incredibly difficult.”
He noted that they continue to book more and more Electron flights each year as they move forward with the program and prepare to launch the larger, reusable Neutron rocket by mid-2025. However, he said their pace of launch will continue to be driven by demand customers.
“Any CEO will say they want to see it vertical, right? The reality is that we adapt to the demands of our customers. And customer demand is constantly changing depending on the geopolitical circumstances of where people are building their constellations and everything else,” Beck said.
“I’ll put it this way, this year we sold more electrons than we’ve ever sold, and next year will be the same. So we certainly hope that the product will continue to scale, but it’s purely driven by market demand.”