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New Zealand startup successfully launches rocket

abc.net.au

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Re: New Zealand startup successfully launches rocket

#51

Post by anovikov »

jessriedel wrote: post #40
syedkarim wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their differentiation is the ticket price: $5M, for now. A SpaceX F9 is $60M. The cost per kg may be an order of magnitude greater, but so is the ticket price.

This is only really useful if you want to put a tiny satellite in an unusual orbit. For frequently trafficked orbits, you can just hitch a ride on a larger launch. Could be a successful business niche, but it doesn’t seem likely to revolutionize anything.

If you want a rideshare launch you have to wait, usually for years. And these guys can launch quickly, and still usually be cheaper or same price as rideshares. Non quite good for nanosats/cubesats, but fine for microsats.

Re: New Zealand startup successfully launches rocket

#52

Post by manicdee »

jessriedel wrote: post #40
syedkarim wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their differentiation is the ticket price: $5M, for now. A SpaceX F9 is $60M. The cost per kg may be an order of magnitude greater, but so is the ticket price.

This is only really useful if you want to put a tiny satellite in an unusual orbit. For frequently trafficked orbits, you can just hitch a ride on a larger launch. Could be a successful business niche, but it doesn’t seem likely to revolutionize anything.

SpaceX simply doesn’t have the launch cadence to be anywhere near as useful to certain markets as Rocketlabs will be.

Specifically, RL is ideal for a series of small satellites launched at a regular cadence to perform e.g. atmospheric studies. For this niche, booking ride shares requires booking a seat years in advance through a launch broker and then accepting whatever delays eventuate for the entire payload.

If a company or government wants to get a small satellite into space quickly or with tighter constraints on launch windows, RL will be the launcher of preference since their aim is to reduce the time from launch booking to orbital deployment. Being the only payload and customer means using the same payload adaptor each launch, which means lower integration costs. Reducing time from booking to orbit means satellites aren’t sitting in a clean room for years waiting for launch.

Launch costs measured in terms of $/kg are only part of the feasibility of a particular launch platform. It is a (very roughly) similar scenario to commuters using private vehicles rather than public transport.

Re: New Zealand startup successfully launches rocket

#53

Post by andars »

adventured wrote: post #24
toomanybeersies wrote: post #8

It's interesting seeing the difference between the publicity that SpaceX gets, and the publicity of other rocket companies like RocketLab get. It shows how effective the PR machine for SpaceX is. RocketLabs launch is pretty significant, considering it's the first orbital launch of a rocket designed and built in a small nation. This has barely hit the news. I guess part of the reason is that it's not in the USA, and t…

Isn't Rocket Lab a US start-up, funded almost entirely by US money, operated by US executives, with headquarters in Huntington Beach CA and a New Zealand subsidiary?

I'm pretty sure they recently restructured by creating Rocket Lab US and making the existing Rocket Lab NZ a subsidiary to get more flexibility regarding some arms restrictions.

Re: New Zealand startup successfully launches rocket

#54

Post by virgilp »

erdle wrote: post #25
toomanybeersies wrote: post #8

It's interesting seeing the difference between the publicity that SpaceX gets, and the publicity of other rocket companies like RocketLab get. It shows how effective the PR machine for SpaceX is. RocketLabs launch is pretty significant, considering it's the first orbital launch of a rocket designed and built in a small nation. This has barely hit the news. I guess part of the reason is that it's not in the USA, and t…

If you're curious about the PR machine associated with SpaceX... see Tesla's stock price and news versus the very real and known issues with their debt/liabilities and production.

Do remember that there may be interested parties painting a bleaker "production issues"/ "liabilities" picture than the truth. See e.g. this review [1].

[1] http://www.thedrive.com/new-cars/17280/tesla-model-3-the-fir...

Re: New Zealand startup successfully launches rocket

#55

Post by dgudkov »

manicdee wrote: post #52
jessriedel wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is only really useful if you want to put a tiny satellite in an unusual orbit. For frequently trafficked orbits, you can just hitch a ride on a larger launch. Could be a successful business niche, but it doesn’t seem likely to revolutionize anything.

SpaceX simply doesn’t have the launch cadence to be anywhere near as useful to certain markets as Rocketlabs will be. Specifically, RL is ideal for a series of small satellites launched at a regular cadence to perform e.g. atmospheric studies. For this niche, booking ride shares requires booking a seat years in advance through a launch broker and then accepting whatever delays eventuate for the entire payload. If a c…

>RL will be the launcher of preference

Probably, a launcher of preference. There are companies that target similar niche, e.g. http://www.maritimelaunch.com/

Re: New Zealand startup successfully launches rocket

#56

Post by mappu »

cptaj wrote: post #7
syedkarim wrote: post #4

I met Peter Beck (CEO/founder) at SmallSat 2014. Hat-tip for doing what he set out to do. He told me that a Ferrari was not much more than a bunch of carbon fiber, software, and fuel--and only costs $500,000. So there is no reason that a small rocket, which is also carbon fiber, software, and fuel, can't also be $500,000. Now that his launch vehicle is orbital, I'm looking forward to it someday being a half-million-d…

They haven't made their first commercial launch yet. They've certainly received money for scheduled launches in the future, but I'd say they're definitely just getting started. Some industries have longer incubation periods =)

I think this launch was commercial - it put three satellites from two private companies (Planet Labs / Spire Global) into orbit.

Re: New Zealand startup successfully launches rocket

#57

Post by toomanybeersies »

mikeash wrote: post #30
toomanybeersies wrote: post #8

It's interesting seeing the difference between the publicity that SpaceX gets, and the publicity of other rocket companies like RocketLab get. It shows how effective the PR machine for SpaceX is. RocketLabs launch is pretty significant, considering it's the first orbital launch of a rocket designed and built in a small nation. This has barely hit the news. I guess part of the reason is that it's not in the USA, and t…

You don’t generally make the news for doing things others have done before you. Don’t get me wrong, this company is cool and their success is super exciting, but I see no reason for them to get any press coverage outside of specialty media. SpaceX was pretty quiet too when they were first starting out, and when they’re all over the news now it’s generally because they’re doing something new. I doubt nukes have anythi…

It's a new country launching a rocket though. That seems like reasonably big news to me.

Not front page, stop the press news, but still news.

Re: New Zealand startup successfully launches rocket

#58

Post by JumpCrisscross »

zik wrote: post #37
mikeash wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don’t generally make the news for doing things others have done before you. Don’t get me wrong, this company is cool and their success is super exciting, but I see no reason for them to get any press coverage outside of specialty media. SpaceX was pretty quiet too when they were first starting out, and when they’re all over the news now it’s generally because they’re doing something new. I doubt nukes have anythi…

RocketLab's doing incredibly innovative things. They're using an entirely new kind of rocket engine power cycle. This is the first new power cycle invented since the Full Flow Staged Combustion Cycle in the 1960s. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_pump-fed_engine They're using entirely 3d printed rocket engines and also full carbon composite rocket bodies - another first for a rocket of this scale. Where it come…

> This is the first new power cycle invented since the Full Flow Staged Combustion Cycle in the 1960s

Yes, battery pump engines aware new for this scale of a rocket. No, it’s not the first new cycle since the 1960s.

Re: New Zealand startup successfully launches rocket

#59

Post by paulsutter »

syedkarim wrote: post #18
bmcusick wrote: post #10

What they’ve accomplished is amazing engineering. I’m sort of scratching my head at the economics though. Their cost to orbit is about $15,000/kg. That’s more expensive than the Space Shuttle was. And the CEO has said they’re not working on reusability. Their goal of rapid manufacturing and frequent launches seems laudable in an expendable launch vehicle world. I’m not sure how they plan to survive when SpaceX and Bl…

Their differentiation is the ticket price: $5M, for now. A SpaceX F9 is $60M. The cost per kg may be an order of magnitude greater, but so is the ticket price.

Much faster time to launch is the value proposition. It can take years waiting to piggyback on a larger launch, especially given how often the large launches are delayed.

How long are our careers, really? Random years-long delays are a real problem. It's easier to make a satellite really light than to wait for the cheapest price per kg.

Re: New Zealand startup successfully launches rocket

#60

Post by universenz »

ioquatix wrote: post #26
toomanybeersies wrote: post #8

It's interesting seeing the difference between the publicity that SpaceX gets, and the publicity of other rocket companies like RocketLab get. It shows how effective the PR machine for SpaceX is. RocketLabs launch is pretty significant, considering it's the first orbital launch of a rocket designed and built in a small nation. This has barely hit the news. I guess part of the reason is that it's not in the USA, and t…

> New Zealand isn't capable of putting nuclear warheads on top of one I'm pretty sure we could if we actually wanted to. But we have a staunch anti-Nuclear policy :)

..and we also know that it's not how big your button is, but how you use it. We'd rather use ours to push human kind forward.
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