Rocket Lab plans to recover the Electron
rocket’s first stage during the Company’s upcoming 40th mission,
and launch a pre-flown Rutherford engine for the first time,
accelerating plans to make Electron the world’s first reusable
small orbital rocket.
Rocket Lab USA, Inc. (Nasdaq: RKLB) (“Rocket Lab” or “the
Company”), a leading launch and space systems company, today
announced it has accelerated its next recovery mission. The 'We
Love the Nightlife' mission, scheduled for lift-off today, will now
fly on a recovery-configured Electron rocket. For the first time,
Rocket Lab will also launch a pre-flown Rutherford engine, a
significant milestone in the program to evolve Electron into a
reusable rocket.
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the full release here:
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A recovery-configured Rocket Lab Electron
launch vehicle sits on the pad at Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand
ahead of lift-off for Capella Space. (Photo: Business Wire)
Scheduled to launch as early 11:45 am NZST today (23:45 UTC)
from Rocket Lab’s private orbital launch site in New Zealand, the
mission will be Rocket Lab’s 40th Electron launch overall and will
deploy a spacecraft for American space tech company Capella, a
leading provider of commercial Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR)
imagery.
As a recovery mission, Electron’s first stage will return to
Earth under a parachute after launch and splash down in the Pacific
Ocean several hundred kilometers down range from Launch Complex 1.
Rocket Lab’s marine recovery vessel will then extract the stage
from the ocean and transport it back to Rocket Lab’s production
complex for analysis and testing. Rocket Lab has previously
recovered first stages from seven Electron launches and ‘We Love
The Nightlife’ is intended to be one of the final tests before the
Company attempts to refly a booster for the first time in the
coming months.
In addition to recovering the booster, Rocket Lab will fly a
pre-flown 3D printed Rutherford engine for the first time. The
engine previously flew on the first stage of the ‘There and Back
Again’ mission, successfully launched in May 2022. The engine has
since undergone extensive qualification and acceptance testing to
certify it for re-flight, including multiple full mission duration
hot fires where the pre-flown engine performed flawlessly.
“This mission is a big step toward reusable Electron rockets,”
said Rocket Lab founder and CEO Peter Beck. “The engines we’re
bringing back from previous recovery missions are performing
exceptionally well through requalification and acceptance testing,
so we’re excited to send one on its second trip to space as one of
the final steps before reflying an entire first stage. Once again
our team has demonstrated impressive responsiveness by swapping
vehicles matter of days, enabling us to get Capella to orbit on
schedule, while giving us another opportunity to splash down and
recover a new booster. With the production team pumping out a new
Electron rocket every three weeks, we have the unique ability to
shuffle stages around to maintain a rapid launch cadence.”
The 'We Love the Nightlife' mission was previously scheduled for
launch earlier this month, and was initially not destined to be a
recovery mission, but low ignitor pressure on a single engine
during an initial launch attempt required the team to stand down
and conduct further analysis. To keep the mission on schedule, and
also expedite Rocket Lab’s reusability efforts the fairing, with
Capella payload integrated within, was swapped onto the next
available recovery-configured first stage in Rocket Lab’s
production line.
‘We Love The Nightlife’ will deliver the first of Capella’s next
generation ‘Acadia’ Earth observation satellites. The mission will
be Rocket Lab’s third launch for Capella following the successful
‘Stronger Together’ mission launched in March 2023 from Rocket Lab
Launch Complex 2 in Virginia, and the ‘I Can’t Believe It’s Not
Optical’ mission in August 2020 from Launch Complex 1 in New
Zealand, which deployed the first satellite in Capella’s SAR
constellation.
The launch will be live streamed at
www.rocketlabusa.com/live-stream. For real time updates on launch
day, follow Rocket Lab on Twitter @RocketLab. Images and videos
will be available for download on Flickr:
https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjANcH8
Launch window opens:
- NZST: 11:45 – 15:30, August 24th
- UTC: 23:45 – 03:30, August 23rd
- EDT: 19:45 – 23:30, August 23rd
- PDT: 16:45 – 20:30, August 23rd
+ About Rocket Lab
Founded in 2006, Rocket Lab is an end-to-end space company with
an established track record of mission success. We deliver reliable
launch services, satellite manufacture, spacecraft components, and
on-orbit management solutions that make it faster, easier and more
affordable to access space. Headquartered in Long Beach,
California, Rocket Lab designs and manufactures the Electron small
orbital launch vehicle and the Photon satellite platform and is
developing the Neutron 13-ton payload class launch vehicle. Since
its first orbital launch in January 2018, Rocket Lab’s Electron
launch vehicle has become the second most frequently launched U.S.
rocket annually and has delivered 170 satellites to orbit for
private and public sector organizations, enabling operations in
national security, scientific research, space debris mitigation,
Earth observation, climate monitoring, and communications. Rocket
Lab’s Photon spacecraft platform has been selected to support NASA
missions to the Moon and Mars, as well as the first private
commercial mission to Venus. Rocket Lab has three launch pads at
two launch sites, including two launch pads at a private orbital
launch site located in New Zealand and a third launch pad in
Virginia, USA. To learn more, visit www.rocketlabusa.com.
+ About Capella Space
Capella Space is an information services company that provides
on-demand, industry-leading, high-resolution synthetic aperture
radar (SAR) Earth observation imagery. Through a constellation of
small satellites, Capella provides easy access to frequent, timely,
and flexible information affecting dozens of industries worldwide.
Capella’s high-resolution SAR satellites are matched with
unparalleled infrastructure to deliver reliable global insights
that sharpen our understanding of the changing world – improving
decisions about commerce, conservation, and security on Earth.
Learn more at www.capellaspace.com.
+ FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS
This press release may contain certain “forward-looking
statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation
Reform Act of 1995, Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as
amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as
amended. All statements, other than statements of historical facts,
contained in this press release, including statements regarding our
expectations of financial results for the third quarter of 2023,
strategy, future operations, future financial position, projected
costs, prospects, plans and objectives of management, are
forward-looking statements. Words such as, but not limited to,
“anticipate,” “aim,” “believe,” “contemplate,” “continue,” “could,”
“design,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “might,” “plan,”
“possible,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “seek,” “should,”
“suggest,” “strategy,” “target,” “will,” “would,” and similar
expressions or phrases, or the negative of those expressions or
phrases, are intended to identify forward-looking statements,
although not all forward-looking statements contain these
identifying words. These forward-looking statements are based on
Rocket Lab’s current expectations and beliefs concerning future
developments and their potential effects. These forward-looking
statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties (many of which
are beyond Rocket Lab’s control), or other assumptions that may
cause actual results or performance to be materially different from
those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements.
Many factors could cause actual future events to differ materially
from the forward-looking statements in this release, including
risks related to delays and disruptions in expansion efforts; our
dependence on a limited number of customers; the harsh and
unpredictable environment of space in which our products operate
which could adversely affect our launch vehicle and spacecraft;
increased congestion from the proliferation of low Earth orbit
constellations which could materially increase the risk of
potential collision with space debris or another spacecraft and
limit or impair our launch flexibility and/or access to our own
orbital slots; increased competition in our industry due in part to
rapid technological development and decreasing costs; technological
change in our industry which we may not be able to keep up with or
which may render our services uncompetitive; average selling price
trends; general economic uncertainty and turbulence which could
impact our customers’ ability to pay what we are owed; failure of
our launch vehicles, spacecraft and components to operate as
intended either due to our error in design in production or through
no fault of our own; launch schedule disruptions; supply chain
disruptions, product delays or failures; design and engineering
flaws; launch failures; natural disasters and epidemics or
pandemics; any inability to effectively integrate recently acquired
assets; changes in governmental regulations including with respect
to trade and export restrictions, or in the status of our
regulatory approvals or applications; or other events that force us
to cancel or reschedule launches, including customer contractual
rescheduling and termination rights; risks that acquisitions may
not be completed on the anticipated time frame or at all or do not
achieve the anticipated benefits and results; and the other risks
detailed from time to time in Rocket Lab’s filings with the
Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”), including under the
heading “Risk Factors” in Rocket Lab’s Annual Report on Form 10-K
for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2022, which was filed with
the SEC on March 7, 2023, and elsewhere. There can be no assurance
that the future developments affecting Rocket Lab will be those
that we have anticipated. Except as required by law, Rocket Lab is
not undertaking any obligation to update or revise any
forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information,
future events or otherwise.
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+ Rocket Lab Media Contact Morgan Bailey
media@rocketlabusa.com
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