“In terms of launch cadence for the rest of the year, we’re targeting up to 15 launches - six more than last year’s record of nine,” Rocket Lab communications director Morgan Bailey told the Herald earlier this week. Targetting record launch frequencyĪlthough still some distance behind its pre-pandemic launch frequency targets - and SpaceX’s launch cadence - Rocket Lab is now picking up the pace with the addition of a second launchpad at Mahia and now Launch Complex 2 in Virginia, which saw its first launch on January 24. It has yet to get a satellite into orbit). (Kuiper, a division of Amazon, was formed in 2019 with the aim of putting a swarm of satellites into orbit for global internet. The CFO said while high-volume launch outfit Starlink was a “walled” garden (the satellite broadband firm is a fully-owned subsidiary of Musk’s SpaceX), its putative rival Kuiper was an example of a potential growth customer. It later turned out the flight was on course.) (Rocket Lab has had three failures in 35 flights, or two if you discount its maiden test flight, which was destroyed on the order of a range safety officer based on a suspected telemetry problem. Spice said Rocket Lab had picked up business from another startup, Astra, which has seen eight of its 10 launches end in failure, including its loss of two NASA weather satellites in June last year. “If you want to foster and grow a wider industrial base, you may need to make some decisions not based only on price.”Ī key requirement for Lane 1 competitors under the new procurement rules is to have accomplished a successful mission to orbit, something that Rocket Lab also pushed for.Īt the Bank of America conference, Spice underlined that while Rocket Lab had launched 34 rockets (which would become 35 three days later with a BlackSky launch from Mahia on March 24), rivals like Virgin Orbit - currently seeking funds to avoid bankruptcy - were still in the starting blocks. “Price is important, but I think in the spirit of this whole concept of making sure there are more than just two providers, I think the government will probably look upon that as a strategic industrial base decision,” Beck said. Rocket Lab's Vice President of Launch Systems, Shaun D'Mello, Senator Roger Wicker, Stennis Space Center Director Dr Richard Gilbrech, and Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith participated in a ribbon cutting to kick off operations at Rocket Lab's Archimedes Test Complex for the Neutron launch vehicle at NASA's Stennis Space Center in Mississippi on November 4. We’re pricing Neutron to a US$50-US$55m launch service cost.” “If you look at the sticker price of a Falcon 9 launch, it’s about US$67 million ($105m). Electron’s been designed to support 13 tonnes down range, the CFO said. The Falcon 9 carries about 16 tonnes down range. “We are positioning the Neutron to compete directly against the Falcon 9,” Spice said, in a reference to the mainstay rocket in Elon Musk’s SpaceX lineup. Speaking at a Bank of America industrial securities conference in London, Rocket Lab CFO Adam Spice said the Kiwi-American company is on track for its first Neutron launch by the end of 2024. The Kiwi-American company has also revealed its launch-frequency plans for the rest of the year - and how New Zealand fits in - after successful back-to-back launches in the US and NZ this month, and how it successfully lobbied for a new US military procurement policy (more on which below). He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.Rocket Lab has revealed the launch cost for its much larger, crew-capable Neutron - and it undercuts Elon Musk’s SpaceX. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Progression does not reset anymore and players can simply carry on from where they are right now. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Just because Rocket League Sideswipe has launched Season 8, doesn’t mean its not possible to obtain the Aurum Badge Border. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more.
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